University of Southern California • Fall 2010 USC Viterbi //Engineer

Data, Data, Data: NEW FORMS, BIG VISION

USC’S NEW PRESIDENT // NAE GRAND CHALLENGES SUMMIT // HEALTH CARE VIA MOBILE PHONE IN THIS ISSUE

USC Viterbi //Engineer FALL 2010

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FEATURES DEPARTMENTS PEER REVIEW 18 < INTELLIGENT EYE: Laurent Itti 24 < DATA, DATA, DATA: 2 < Board of Councilors is Teaching Machines to Process NEW FORMS, BIG VISION 3 < From the Dean: Vision 2.0 What They See A look at how Viterbi faculty are PARTICLES 19 < ORGANIC PHOTOVOLTAICS: advancing how we work with data Chongwu Zhou Believes in all its myriad forms and uses. 4 < New USC Institute Targets Diesel Emissions T-shirts Might One Day Power Cell Phones At Viterbi School, 34 < PRESIDENT C. L. MAX NIKIAS 5 < Nanoscale Engineering: < USC’s visionary new leader (and Paving the Way to Deep Space?; 20 A DOCTOR IN YOUR POCKET: Viterbi School’s former dean). Honoring ISI’s Role in Creating Murali Annavaram and our research can spark great things. Mobile Health Care Delivery the Internet 21 < SPOTLIGHT: Ted Berger’s Pioneering SPECIAL FEATURE 6 < Tackling L.A.’s Water Main Blowouts Work in Neuroengineering < UNDERSTANDING CANCER: 36 < THE 2010 NAE GRAND 7 < A Viterbi Professor’s Year at 22 CHALLENGES SUMMIT the State Department Andrea Armani Tackles Cancer’s Genetic Triggers The Viterbi School hosts a ground- 8 < Technology to Recognize YOUR SUPPORT CAN IGNITE THAT SPARK— breaking national conversation to Facial Expressions; Celebrating ALUMNI NEWS discuss how engineering can make M.C. Gill’s 100th Birthday ESPECIALLY WITH YOUR COMPANY’S MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM. 40 < A Trojan at Helm of JPL’s the greatest impact to society. 9 < Viterbi School’s Commencement Mars Program Webcast Goes Global 42 < Viterbi School’s ‘Boy Wonder’ 10 < Chairman Shang-Hua Teng’s PHOTO ABOVE: Your gift helps fund our pioneering research to cut carbon emissions. Consulted for Boeing; Getting a Plan for the CS Department Professor Martin Gundersen’s Develop green technologies. Spur biomedical advances. We change Viterbi M.S.—from Afghanistan 11 < Engineering + Theater: Nanosecond Pulsed Power the world in meaningful ways at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. 43 < The Prasads: Three Generations Quantifying Human Group is experimenting with of Trojan Engineers Behavior; USC Hosts L.A.’s plasma ignition to develop Yet we can’t do it without you. Your gift allows us to perform this cutting- 44 < Tutor Hall as a Startup Incubator? Construction Industry edge research, and it’s likely that your employer will match it. More than Viterbi Grads launch iBart, Glass cleaner, more efficient diesel < Faculty Accolades 12 < combustion engines. This is 1,000 companies sponsor a gift-matching program, so that your donation 45 Calendar of Events 46 < Remembering Arminta Harness: just one of many ground- to USC can be doubled or even tripled in size. All you have to do is ask ON CAMPUS A Pioneering Female Engineer breaking research projects your human resources office for a matching gift form. 14 < Mobile Creations for the 47 < In Memoriam underway at the USC Viterbi Developmentally Disabled < School of Engineering. FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE MATCHING GIFTS PROGRAM: 15 X PRIZE Lab Comes to USC Q&A 16 < Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos 48 < Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger: 213.821.2730 or [email protected] Delivers Sustainability Lecture Series A Pilot and Hero on Aviation Safety 17 < REACH: Widening the Ph.D. and His Upcoming Viterbi Seminar Recruiting Pipeline; iPodium Class Forges Global Engineering MAIL YOUR DONATION AND FORM TO: Education USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Office of Annual Giving and the Viterbi Society 3650 McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089 FROM THE DEAN

BOARD OF COUNCILORS ISION 2.0 ENGINEERING: THE ENABLING DISCIPLINE OF OUR TIMES CHAIRMAN Karl A. Jacob III, BME ’91, BS CSCI ’00 Coveroo Dwight J. Baum Private Investor Jay L. Kear, BSME ’60 Retrospective, renewal and The vision that drove these accomplishments origi- Private Investor Dean K. Allen, BSME ’57 re-invention are essential to nated from the need to solidify our prominence in the context Retired, Parsons Corporation Ken R. Klein, BS BMEE ’82 the success of any organization. of a rapidly changing global, contextual and economic land- Wind River Systems, Inc., USC Trustee Gordon M. Anderson, BSME ’54 The marketplace is unforgiving scape, and to lead the quest for new paradigms in engineering Retired, Santa Fe International Corporation Marie L. Knowles, BSChE ’68, FALL 2010 to those who ignore them. education and research. MSChE ’70, MBA ’74 Sonny Astani, MSISE ’78 Dean Are universities subject to Retired, ARCO Astani Enterprises, Inc. Yannis C. Yortsos the same forces? Perhaps not David A. Lane, BSEE ’81 This vision is encapsulated by the statement that we Wanda M. Austin, Ph.D. ISE ’88 in past, quieter times, when a ONSET Ventures Chief Executive Officer, should aim to make the Viterbi School: The Aerospace Corporation External Relations much longer horizon governed Alexis C. Livanos William F. Ballhaus, Jr. Christopher J. Stoy Northrop Grumman Corporation higher education. • First at USC Retired, The Aerospace Corporation Executive Director, However, today’s world is • A Leader in the Nation Alfred E. Mann Ronald R. Barnes, BS ACCT ’76 Marketing and Communications Alfred Mann Foundation, USC Life Trustee spawning change at an unpre­ • With Constantly Improving Quality, and Norris Foundation Leslie DaCruz cedented rate, whether it is Excellence in All Our Endeavors Gordon S. Marshall, BS BUS ’46 Carol A. Bartz transformation on a technolog­ Retired, Marshall Industries, USC Life Trustee Editor As the university is moving into a new era, with new Yahoo! Inc. Lenora Chu ical, societal or global scale. Fariborz Maseeh Gregg E. Brandow, BSCE ’67 leadership, and as I have been humbly entrusted with Picoco, LLC Contributing Writers And that change brings waves that break at the doorstep Brandow & Johnston, Inc. another term to lead this remarkable school, the vision Robert Bradford, Bob Calverley, of academia with increasing frequency. Bryan B. Min, BSISE ’86 Edgar Brower, BSISE ’59 Lenora Chu, Gloria Hayes, Vanessa for our school is as clear as before. I am adding a Epsilon Systems Solutions, Inc. The Viterbi School’s strategic vision requires that we Retired, Pacific Scientific Hua, Eric Mankin, Bob Melisso re-focusing dimension: John Mork, BSPE ’70 embrace that change. We have, and it shows. Simon (Xiaofan) Cao, MA PHYS ’85, Energy Corporation of America, USC Trustee Art Direction and The school has experienced exhilarating growth over • Advancing and Fulfilling the Promise MSEE ’87, Ph.D. PHYS ’90 Graphic Design the last several years, starting with its naming in 2004. of Engineering to Empower Society as the Venture Capitalist Donald L. Paul Lime Twig Group USC Energy Institute Nearly every quality indicator has improved dramatically Enabling Discipline of our Times—in What Yang Ho Cho, MBA ’79 Photography / Graphics Korean Airlines, USC Trustee Allen E. Puckett and compellingly, particularly in the key areas of student, We Call Engineering+ Phil Channing, Chuck Espinoza, Retired, Hughes Aircraft Company, faculty, research and scholarship. David W. Chonette, MSME ’60, ENGME ’64 Brian Morri, Jon Vidar USC Life Trustee Private Investor Following this vision brings vistas of breathtaking views. F. Edward Reynolds, Jr., BSCE ’81, Cover Art Leo Chu MSCE ’84, MBS ’86 Tim Bower We see an undergraduate educational experience enriched Hollywood Park Casino and The Reynolds Group with innovation, entrepreneurship and communication Crystal Park Casino Hotel We are forging new George E. Scalise, BSEE ’88 skills, and enhanced with community and global outreach. Malcolm R. Currie TIAA-Cref Institute paths in interdisciplinary research and scholarship We continue to pursue the fundamental discovery of Retired, Hughes Aircraft Company, USC Life Trustee John F. Shea, BS ENG ’49 in close partnerships with medicine and health new laws, materials, processes and devices in collaboration J.F. Shea Co., Inc. with the sciences. We are forging new paths in interdisci- Kenneth C. Dahlberg, MSEE ’69 “sciences, policy, communications, social sciences Science Applications International Darlene Solomon and the arts. plinary research and scholarship in close partnerships with Corporation Agilent Technologies medicine and health sciences, policy, communications, John Deininger Patrick Soon-Shiong social sciences and the arts. J.D. Investments, Inc. Abraxis BioScience, LLC We are hammering out solutions to vexing problems, Incoming freshman SAT scores have soared and the such as the NAE Grand Challenges, the promotion of Feng Deng, MS CENG ’93 Richard D. Stephens, BS NSMA ’74 latest data for fall 2010 shows another 17-point increase. Northern Light Venture Capital The Boeing Company ” which has been an unrelenting task of the Viterbi School More than a third of all entering freshmen are women. Albert Dorman, MSCE ’62 Mark A. Stevens, BSEE ’81, along with its partners. The freshman return rate to engineering majors is now AECOM BA ECON ’81, MS CENG ’84 And we are imbuing a generation of new professionals Sequoia Capital, USC Trustee at an astounding 92 percent. Daniel J. Epstein, BSISE ’62 with the skills and tools to implement these transforma- On the faculty front, the number of annual Ph.D. ConAm Management Corporation, Parviz Tayebati, Ph.D. PHYS ’89 tions and be the catalysts of change. USC Trustee Camros Capital, LLC Volume 9, Issue 1 degrees awarded here has approached the number of our USC Viterbi Engineer is published In the fall of 2010, this vision is as clear as 20/20. Alan J. Fohrer, BSCE ’73, MSCE ’76 Andrew J. Viterbi, Ph.D. EE ’62 twice a year for the alumni and friends of tenure-track faculty. We have hired a total of 31 new Southern California Edison Viterbi Group, LLC, USC Trustee the Viterbi School of Engineering at the engineering faculty in the last five years, with an increase University of Southern California. Hester Gill William Wang, BSEE ’86 of more than 60 percent in diversity hiring (women, Vizio Letters to the editor and comments are M.C. Gill, BSChE ’37 welcome. Please send them to: Hispanic and African-American faculty). Retired, M.C. Gill Corporation, Warner M. Williams And our faculty continue to collect distinctions at USC Viterbi Engineer Yannis C. Yortsos Honorary USC Trustee Chevron North America Exploration Olin Hall 500 rapid rates. Six have been elected to the various national and Production Company Dean, USC Viterbi School of Engineering Kenton Gregory, BSEE ’76, MD ’80 Los Angeles, California 90089-1451 academies, 14 have received NSF Career Awards, two have Providence St. Vincent Medical Center Jeff J. Woodbury, BSPE ’83, MSPE ’90 Or email them to: received Presidential Early Career (PECASE) awards; and Oregon Laser Medical Center ExxonMobil Development Company [email protected]. three female faculty were singled out in MIT’s TR35 Ming Hsieh, BSEE ’83, MSEE ’84 annual review. All-time highs in research volume and Cogent, Inc., USC Trustee viterbi.usc.edu research centers have demonstrated the research prowess Jen-Hsun Huang of our faculty. NVIDIA Corporation

2 < FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU > 3 PARTICLES Exploring Deep Space? HONORING ISI’S The Mariana Trench? ROLE IN CREATING Targeting Dirty Diesel Emissions NANOSCALE ENGINEERING PAVES THE WAY FOR EXTREME THE INTERNET TEMPERATURE APPLICATIONS NEW USC VITERBI SCHOOL INSTITUTE FORMED TO IMPROVE COMBUSTION EFFICIENCY In March 2010, Internet “royalty” gathered at the Viterbi School’s All this begins with a little bit of tin- Information Sciences Institute (ISI) in ships and bulk carriers, use large diesel • A nano-second pulsed power study kering with grains and grain boundaries. Marina del Rey to celebrate its role in engines that emit significant amounts that will develop lab-scale prototype Hodge aims to change the size and shape making the Internet what it is today. of carbon dioxide, toxic pollutants and transient plasma ignition equipment to of each grain to increase the numbers ISI was home to the basic naming particulate matter. These emissions achieve more complete combustion in of interfaces that allow engineering to system that divided the net into “the contribute to greenhouse gas buildup in diesel engine cylinders. certain, desired properties. dots”—.com, .org, .gov and others. the atmosphere as well as serious public The first phase of research will be The machine that makes her work It was also steward of the Internet’s health problems. conducted at USC, with the goal of pro- possible is a $1.5 million behemoth called most important document series, the Compounding the problem are ducing lab-scale prototype technology a Magnetron sputtering chamber, which Requests for Comment (RFC). the lower-priced, lower quality fuels that can be scaled up for eventual testing sits in a laboratory at Ronald Tutor Hall. The rules and architecture of the typically used by merchant ships and in actual full-size engines. “It’s a very sophisticated machine,” RFCs include the first specifications for modest emissions standards for the ships’ Koo intends for his company to lead says AME Department Chair Geoff e-mail, file-sharing and the efficient engines, whose design has been virtually the way by funding research from his Spedding. “Not many universities have transmission of data across networks. unchanged for 100 years. own charitable foundation, and engage something like this at the industrial- Networking engineers and applications Koo has worked with the USC engine manufacturers and shipping scale size.” developers around the world have Viterbi School of Engineering to owners around the world to commercial- The chamber allows Hodge to create adopted these rules to build the open, establish the TCC Institute for ize and fully implement the technology. Andrea Hodge operating the Magnetron thin layers (coatings) through physical global Internet we have today. Emissions Reduction from Marine Viterbi Dean Yannis Yortsos says sputtering chamber inside Ronald Tutor Hall. vapor deposition of almost any element Among the attendees were Diesel Engines. The plan provides a the school is thrilled to be working with in the periodic table. The layers can vary Vinton G. Cerf and Robert Kahn, two five-year research framework to assist TCCHK and its visionary leader. “We Andrea Hodge has a vision for getting in thickness from one nanometer to hun- researchers who developed basic com- TCC Group with its efforts to reverse, applaud Kenneth Koo for his inter- to Pluto. dreds of microns. “Atom by atom,” says munications Internet models while recover or reduce greenhouse gas and est in conducting truly path-breaking That mission can’t be accomplished Hodge. “That’s how good our control is.” it was still a military-funded project; other emissions. research that could improve combustion with current technologies. But if Hodge The resulting material is tested for Herbert Schorr, ISI’s executive director; Yannis Yortsos and Kenneth Koo sign a memorandum establishing The Viterbi School’s research plan efficiency, while saving fuel and substan- the new USC institute. has her way, the limitation won’t be mechanical properties such as yield Stephen Crocker, author of the first- will proceed along two paths: tially reducing pollution,” says Yortsos. because the shuttle engine decomposed strength and hardness. And the results ever RFC; and C.L. Max Nikias, • A combustion study that will compare Viterbi School professors Fokion A Hong Kong shipping executive has due to extreme temperatures on the way have been very promising. now president of USC. and measure differences in emissions Egolfopoulos, of Aerospace and pledged up to $4.1 million to fund a to the edge of the solar system. Take copper. After running regular They also celebrated the work of and efficiency between diesel engine Mechanical Engineering, and Martin research program at the University of The Viterbi School assistant professor copper through Hodge’s process, the Jonathan Postel (1943-1998), the ISI combustion by conventional means Gundersen, of the Ming Hsieh Southern California to reduce emissions of aerospace and mechanical engineer- resulting material—still pure Cu—yields project leader who helped first to bring with that assisted by transient plasma Department of Electrical Engineering, and improve combustion efficiency in ing (AME) is working on a new direction a strength of 1,000 Mega Pascals. That’s the RFC system into existence, and ignition (TPI). will be the principal investigators. // marine diesel engines. in materials development by study- five times stronger than typical copper. Robert Braden, Postel’s successor. // Kenneth Koo of Tai Chong Cheang ing nanoscale twin boundaries, or the “We can actually change what Mother Steamship Co. (H.K.) Ltd (TCCHK) interface between clusters of atoms of a Nature made,” says Hodge. “Instead of says collaboration between industry HOW A PLASMA-FIRED DIESEL COULD WORK particular material. being face-centered cubic copper, we can To learn more about the USC Information and academia is needed to substantially The desired result? Improving make it body-centered cubic.” Hodge’s Sciences Institute, visit www. isi.edu reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and 1. The intake valve opens, the piston travels down, and multi-layered thin film coatings using group is also working with Tantalum (Ta) air enters the combustion chamber. Air Enters 1 harmful pollutants emitted by conven- Inlet Valve Fuel interrupted deposition to improve a and Niobium (Nb). 2. The intake valve closes and the piston travels up, Injected tional large bore two-stroke, single-acting compressing the air. Normally, the combustion event material’s thermal stability and ductility. The applications for her work are vast. begins during the end of this stroke, which is not opti- Materials engineered at the Using high-temperature nanostructured marine diesel engines used by the mum because the combustion is fighting the piston’s Combustion Glow/Plasma world’s merchant shipping fleets. upward movement and heat from the Chamber Plug nanoscale—defined as smaller than coatings in engines means that they’ll fuel is wasted. last longer, use less fuel and withstand “The best way to initiate change is 3. The piston reaches top dead center and plasma is 2 a tenth of a micrometer—typically to partner with an institution of higher created in the cylinder (the glow plug could be made have very high strengths. Yet when extreme temperatures. into the plasma source), initiating combustion. Since learning,” says Koo, TCCHK’s group ignition delay (the time it takes for the fuel and air to heated, they often lose all the benefits “You could also use these coatings for chairman and CEO. “Let’s come up with mix) is greatly reduced, the total power of the fuel is of a nanoscale microstructure due to an turbine blades, aerospace applications, or released on the downward moving piston. the designs that work and bang on the Exhaust increase in grain size. anything else that must withstand severe 4. The last stroke shows complete nearly perfect 3 Stroke maritime walls of industry.” combustion, and therefore no after treatment, EGR, Hodge aims to customize materials heat or severe cooling,” Hodge says. The problem Koo wants to solve is or exhaust-mounted catalyst is needed. so that they last longer, weigh less, and Imagine the possibilities. Better significant. Most of the world’s mer- BENEFITS: Plasma withstand the most extreme hot and engines. Deep sea exploration. Journeys Introduced From left: Herbert Schorr, Robert Kahn, chant ships, including tankers, container • More power • Better throttle response cold temperatures. to outer space. And just maybe—Pluto. // Stephen Crocker, C.L. Max Nikias. • Better fuel economy • More engine RPM 4 • Cleaner emissions, • Lower static compression • with no expensive • ratio becomes as option • and complicated • Elimination of • aftertreatment • cold-start issues 4 < PARTICLES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU PARTICLES > 5 Tackling Blowouts in L.A.’s Water Supply Mr. Meshkati Goes To Washington IMPACTING POLICY WITH ENGINEERING EXPERTISE REFLECTIONS FROM A YEAR AS A JEFFERSON SCIENCE FELLOW

This summer, industrial and nuclear safety expert Najmedin “Najm” Meshkati completed a year as a Jefferson Science Fellow. Run by the U.S. Department of State, that program called for Meshkati to serve as a Senior Science and Engineering Adviser for the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State. Established in partnership with the National Academies and the science, technology and engineering community in 2003, the Fellowship’s purpose is to create a platform by which science and engineering can inform foreign policy decisions. Meshkati, a professor of the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, offered this reflection on his experience.

My efforts in Washington, D.C., One of the most interesting of Europe following World War II, the revolved around the development of experiences of my assignment? The Global Engagement initiative could also science and engineering diplomacy initia- opportunity to closely observe the substantially rebuild badly damaged tives for partnership creation, capacity making of a major thrust of the Obama relations between the U.S. and Muslim building and conflict resolution, especially administration’s foreign policy. Following majority countries, if it is formulated as such initiatives are needed for interact- President Obama’s historic address to correctly and executed prudently. ing with countries in the Middle East. the Muslims of the world in Cairo on Something else that impressed me Photo: L.A. Times My work encompassed integrated June 4, 2009 which he dubbed “the New was the direct, key role that young, Damage from break on Coldwater Canyon Avenue. technical and policy-based, systems-ori- Beginning,” the administration embarked enthusiastic staffers play in the admin- ented frameworks to improve the safety on a series of initiatives geared toward the istration’s policy formulation. Although A rash of well- and Power personnel, studied system have a sudden drop of water pressure and reliability of large-scale technological realization of meaningful collaborations they may not “make” final policy, they publicized breaks characteristics such as pipe diameter, at a given time of the day,” he told systems in the civil aviation, nuclear in science and technology for developing are surely the brains behind its framing in Southern thickness and age, and drew comparisons the L.A. Times and various TV news power, and (upstream and downstream) new sources of energy; green jobs; digi- and institutionalization. Many of my California water with other systems in large urban areas, crews following the release of the report oil industries. It was not only a journey to tized records; clean water; and new crops. talented former USC students, espe- mains disrupted including San Diego, Washington, D.C., in February 2010. Capitol Hill but also a global adventure; Now called the “Global Engagement,” cially engineering students who chose commutes and and New York. Bardet and his committee recom- I met with scholars, diplomats and policy- they comprise a major U.S. foreign policy interdisciplinary paths, are certainly at destroyed streets The team analyzed years of historical mended an alternate, more gradual water makers in Athens, Paris, Bahrain, Cairo, initiative that could eventually rival the least as remarkable as these staffers, if during the summer information about the immense L.A. conservation plan to help avoid future Alexandria, Tunis and Stockholm over Marshall Plan. As that 1947 program not more so. I come back to campus with of 2009. water system, which involves 7,200 miles blowouts. And such a plan is now in the last seven months. helped rebuild the broken countries a renewed interest in encouraging my Jean-Pierre Bardet, chair of the of pipe delivering 200 billion gallons of effect. The committee’s work resulted future students to try seek such influen- Sonny Astani Department of Civil and water at cost of $1 billion per year. They in a computer model that portrays the tial positions within departments of the Environmental Engineering (CEE), led examined the chemistry of the soil and LADWP’s distribution system in unprec- executive branch in Washington, D.C. the blue-ribbon panel tapped by the city seismic movements of the surrounding edented detail, with the biography and They can make a difference. of Los Angeles to discover the causes. geologic area. They worked with Jet composition of virtually every section Throughout the year, I felt doubly As director of the USC Center on Propulsion Laboratory researchers to of pipe documented. proud of my Trojan connections—USC Megacities, Bardet brought to the investi- measure real-time stresses using satellite Tat Fu, a CEE postdoctoral affiliations as both an engineering alum- gation a history of bringing together and ground sensors. researcher, and Richard G. Little, direc- nus (M.S.EMT ’78 and Ph.D.ISE ’83) and experts from all disciplines—including A conclusion began to emerge. The tor of USC Keston Institute for Public a faculty member. During an important engineering, architecture, economics, team found that the rationing policy— Finance and Infrastructure Policy, also sat meeting last April at the headquarters of policy and public health—to innovate specifically, limiting lawn watering to on the investigative committee. // the League of Arab States in Cairo, the for a better future for metropolises with two days a week—meant water pressure high-ranking host thanked me for my more than 10 million people. in the system dropped on certain days. technical and diplomatic contributions, The water main breaks raised This created stressful cycles of pressur- and also noted that “he is coming from concerns from the media and the public ization and depressurization for pipes. one of the best universities in the world, about the safety of the city’s water The result for the pipes? Metal the University of Southern California.” // distribution system. Why did they occur? fatigue—the same phenomenon seen Did the city’s new water rationing system when someone breaks a coat hanger or On the heels of his fellowship, Meshkati play a role? Were old water pipelines paper clip by repeatedly bending it back was selected to serve on a National Academy being replaced in a timely manner? and forth. To learn more about the USC Center on of Engineering/National Research Council To find answers, the committee met “The bottom line is, you want to Megacities, visit: www.megacities.usc.edu WILLOW GARAGE ROBOT COMES TO CAMPUS panel investigating the BP Deepwater The Viterbi School is one of 11 universities worldwide whose research proposals survived with Los Angeles Department of Water create a more even usage… so you don’t a rigorous screening by the robotics company Willow Garage. As a result, a Willow Garage Horizon explosion and Gulf oil spill. PR2 (Personal Robot 2) has arrived at the Robotics Research Lab in Tutor Hall. The arrival kicks off a two-year program in which the Viterbi School will pursue research and develop- ment goals related to developing sophisticated mobile robots. 6 < PARTICLES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU PARTICLES > 7 Smile, and soon the Webcam Will Know You’re Smiling The Viterbi School’s 2010 Commencement DEVELOPING FACIAL EXPRESSION RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY Webcast Goes Global!

Can a webcam system figure out whether The existing technique is effective VT you’re happy or angry, and adapt its reac- and can accurately recognize eight On May 14, 2010, the USC Viterbi WA ME

tion depending on your state of mind? expressions—surprise, anger, joy, MT ND School of Engineering hosted newly- NH Gérard Medioni of the Department disgust, sadness, eyes blinking, left MN MA minted Trojan graduates, alumni, OR WI NY of Computer Science is well on his way eye winking, and right eye winking. ID SD RI family and friends on campus for com- MI CT to determining the answer. The HP However, it requires prior 3D mapping WY PA Labs Innovation Research program of individual faces. mencement ceremonies and festivities. IA NJ NE OH has selected Medioni to develop new The new system aims higher, IN DE And from various locations around NV IL MD WV and inexpensive interfaces for human- incorporating a temporal dimension in UTUT DC VA the world, more than a thousand CO MO computer interaction. analyzing faces captured on video, and CA KS KY “The technology we propose to then using adaptive algorithms to ‘fit alumni and friends tuned in via live NC TN develop is a real-time, efficient and them on the fly’ to a generic 3D model webcast. Asia and North America SC 5 Medioni’s system creates frontal views of OK AR SC generic facial expression recognition for real time frame rate implementation, AZ NM avatar faces (2nd row) that correspond to drew the largest audiences. In the GA AL prototype from a basic webcam,” says photos captured by a webcam (top row). says Medioni. MS Medioni’s research proposal. “Such a system should allow a user United States, California and Texas The graphics (last row) represent the level LA The new work will build on tech­ of activation of different expressions, such to experience a seamless immersive had the highest viewership. We were TX nology previously developed by Medioni’s as surprise, happiness and disgust. interaction, and will constitute a major proud to welcome our virtual visitors FL lab and is composed of two modules. step toward in the development of new, to commencement ceremonies. HI The first one estimates the 3D head pose classifies and describes expressions using reliable, fun and inexpensive interfaces COMMENCEMENT and facial deformations, and the other a non-linear manifold learning process. for human computer interaction.” // VIEWS BY STATE n 0-5 AK n 6-10 n 11-20 n 21-30 n 31-500 n 500+

M.C. Gill Commemorates HIs 100th Birthday

Viterbi leadership gathered at the California Club in August to celebrate ASIA centenarian Merwyn C. Gill, a Pasadena industrialist and longtime supporter of the EUROPE Viterbi School. Gill, who graduated from NORTH USC in 1937 with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, launched the M.C. AMERICA Gill Corporation out of a rented garage in 1945. He grew the company from a mom- and-pop maker of composite wall panels AFRICA into the world’s largest manufacturer of advanced composite materials, particularly COMMENCEMENT refined plastics. In 1978, Gill endowed an VIEWS BY CONTINENT academic chair at the engineering school SOUTH for the study of advanced composite n 0-100 Australia, AMERICA materials. In 2002, he endowed and named South America, Africa the Merwyn C. Gill Composites Center at AUSTRALIA USC. Both he and his wife Hester sit on the and Antarctica Viterbi School Board of Councilors. n 101-500 Europe

M.C. Gill (seated), with (L to R) wife Hester n 500-1000 Asia Gill, M. C. Gill professor Steven Nutt, Viterbi n 1000+ North America SOURCE: Take One Productions, Inc. Dean Yannis Yortsos, and Viterbi CEO of NOTE: Due to lack of access to channel level reporting from certain closed countries External Relations Christopher J. Stoy. in Asia, actual audience numbers are likely higher. These maps include numbers from the Annenberg School, the School of Theatre and the Marshall School of Business.

8 < PARTICLES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU PARTICLES > 9 Guiding the CS Department Engineering + Theater A DECORATED COMPUTER SCIENTIST BEGINS HIS 2ND YEAR AS CHAIR IMPROV THEATER AS A BASIS FOR QUANTIFYING HUMAN BEHAVIOR

addition to being a top scientist in the Two actors wrapped in motion sensors interaction and expression. By control- fields intersecting theoretical computer circle each other, as engineering ling certain elements, the researchers science, game and economic theory, and researchers stand at the perimeter of can record data for the variables that scientific computing, Teng, who has 10 a USC Viterbi School of Engineering spring from manipulating expressive Left: Sharon Carnicke and Shri Narayanan; Right: Two patents, has also developed software for laboratory, taking note. voice and body. theater students do an improv warmup. some of the most innovative companies It’s an unusual partnership between Will Thomas reach for Rose’s arm? in the business. the artists and engineers, and a union Will Rose eventually get frustrated and “Perhaps virtual humans or robots During his first year at USC, Teng the National Science Foundation (NSF) raise her voice? The conflict is easy to can eventually be designed to improvise guided the department in the success- expects will achieve more precise meth- see, but how their interaction will play upon themselves,” says Narayanan. “Not ful recruit of Yan Liu, a prominent ods of modeling human behavior. out is the real question. just deciding whether to do it—but how female faculty in the strategic area of The NSF, under its Creative Meanwhile, Narayanan monitors a to do it, also.” data analysis and machine learning. Information Technologies program, has sophisticated motion capture (mocap) Other potential applications span With the assistance of his faculty lead- awarded a three-year grant to faculty system, which collects data from tiny a number of domains that relate to ers, Teng launched a monthly Ph.D. from the Viterbi School and the USC sensors embedded in the actors’ black behavior. They include addiction treat- social and organized a CS research School of Theatre to study expressive spandex mocap suits. ment, cognitive and behavioral therapy, conference to build stronger connec- human behavior through improvisation “The resulting motion capture customer care in business settings and tions among students and faculty with and motion capture technology. images make possible an intensely close global security applications where socio- Shang-Hua Teng, with the backyard blackboard where he does much of his brainstorming. varied research interests and between “The ultimate Holy Grail is to be able analysis of what happens from moment cultural behaviors come into play. USC computing and its industrial and to build technologies to mimic aspects to moment in the rehearsal hall,” says In the first year the professors used Last fall, Shang-Hua Teng, the 2008 place for our students and faculty to learn interdisciplinary partners. of human behavior,” says Shri Narayanan, Carnicke. “It exposes the bones of the scenes from Shakespeare and Chekhov Gödel Prize winner, came to USC to and create,” says Teng of his vision about Teng also taught a required the Andrew J. Viterbi Professor of actors’ interactions.” to draw out the actors’ improvisation. chair the Department of Computer the department. undergraduate class which launched Engineering and professor of electrical The mocap technology is that same Next year, the researchers plan to use Science (CS). Shortly after, he won Part of this quest means making sure a curriculum improvement effort. engineering and computer science. as that used on the sets of films such real life scenarios, such as how humans the Fulkerson Prize, one of the high- neither side of computer science—a The course also paved the way for Armed with such sophisticated tech- as Avatar and Shrek. But the purpose behave after waiting for 90 minutes in est honors in applied mathematics discipline at the crossroads of science the first-ever successful nomination nologies, scientists could build devices is different. line at the DMV. // given once every three years jointly and engineering—is overlooked. “The of a CS student for the Mellon Mays to help autistic children, create advanced by the American Mathematical science side tends to place emphasis Undergraduate Fellowship, which aims methods for recognizing human speech Society and Mathematical Program­ on fundamental training and research, to increase diversity. and visual behavior, and perhaps even HOSTING GREEN: THE L.A. CONSTRUCTION ming Society. He was also elected a while the engineering side has more One agenda going forward is work- quantify humor. fellow of ACM. need for an immediate connection with ing with faculty to build an “absolutely “The applications are limitless given INDUSTRY COMES TO CAMPUS “I came to USC because its faculty applications and industrial practice,” dominating at the national level” CS the fundamental nature of the issue we’re contains pioneers in modern cryp- addressing—understanding human tography, software engineering, and behavior,” says Sharon Carnicke, a pro­ computational neuroscience, as well fessor in the USC School of Theatre and as younger stars in computer graphics, Narayanan’s co-investigator on the project. natural language processing, network I came to USC because In the lab, Narayanan and Carnicke sciences and robotics,” says Teng. “The its faculty contains pioneers in modern cryptography, software seek to collect digital representations CS Department here is also unique in engineering and computational neuroscience, as well as younger of human emotion and behavior, one bit that it has more than 40 research faculty “stars in computer graphics, natural language processing, network at a time. Drawing upon acting students, members from the world-renowned sciences and robotics. Narayanan and Carnicke have engineered Information Sciences Institute (ISI)— the collection of hundreds of sequences a major player in the creation of the for analysis and created a database they Internet—and from the Institute for call the USC CreativeIT Database. Creative Technologies (ICT).” says Teng, who notes that many program at USC, and fostering concrete “It’s human data,” Narayanan explains. It was a return to campus for Teng, universities place CS departments” mechanisms to fully leverage and “What can we predict from these who earned a master’s degree from USC within the school of sciences, not the expand ISI and ICT’s expertise in areas measurements? Can we develop a math- in 1987 before going on to Carnegie school of engineering, and several uni- such as natural language processing ematical way of explaining patterns Mellon University for his Ph.D. He brings versities solve this dilemma by making and digital graphics. in human behavior?” back to his alma mater a passion to elevate computer science it own school. “Both “My goal is to build a premier CS On one particular spring day, Carnicke the CS Department as one of the world’s sides need significant attention.” program so that we can continue to supervises an improvisation exercise with Leading innovators in green building and construction sustainability headlined the 2010 Sustainability premier computer science programs. Teng himself is an example of both attract first-class scholars to USC and two actors. Each gets exactly one action in Construction Symposium at the Galen Center in April 2010. Around 600 attended the event, “We need to focus not only on the a scientist and an engineer. He earned better-place our students after they verb and one phrase they’re allowed to which was hosted by the Viterbi School and its Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental strategic growth but also on the insti- dual bachelor’s degrees in computer graduate, going not just to good jobs, but utter to achieve opposing objectives. Engineering. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa delivered an address, and Viterbi faculty Hank Koffman, John O’Brien and J.P. Bardet gave overview presentations or presided over the event. tutional culture so that the department science and electrical engineering also to premier schools and to elite labs Outside of these verbal instruc- becomes that much more of an exciting from Shanghai Jiaotong University. In like Microsoft Research and Google.” // tions, the sky’s the limit on physical

10 < PARTICLES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU PARTICLES > 11 Faculty Accolades ANOTHER TR35 VITERBI PROFESSORIAL AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS INNOVATOR NAMED AT THE VITERBI SCHOOL

Nanophotonics expert Michelle Povinelli has been recognized by MIT Technology Review magazine Murali Andrea Iraj Petros Michael Shri Victor Bhaskar C. C. Jay Maja Gerard Najmedin “Najm” as one of the Annavaram Armani Ershaghi Ioannou Kassner Narayanan Prasanna Krishnamachari Kuo Mataric´ Medioni Meshkati world’s top 35 innovators under Murali Annavaram of the Michael Kassner, Shri C. C. Jay Kuo of EE was named Department of Industrial and Systems Koping “Kirk” Shung, of the the age of 35. Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Narayanan, and Viktor Prasanna 2010 Electronic Imaging Scientist of the Engineering (ISE), is an authority on Department of Biomedical Engineering The annual Engineering (EE) joins the school’s were elected Fellows of the American Year for his excellence and contributions aviation, industrial and nuclear safety. and an expert in the field of medical TR35 list is an elite roster of distinguished National Association for the Advancement of to the field of electronic imaging via ultrasound, received the Joseph H. group of accom- Science Foundation CAREER Award Science. Kassner, of the Department research, publications and/or service. Gerald Nadler, IBM Chair Emeritus Holmes Pioneer Award from the plished young Michelle Povinelli winners. This funding will allow his of Aerospace and Mechanical Engin­ in Engineering Management (ISE), American Institute of Ultrasound in leaders who exem- team to answer fundamental challenges eering, was named for leadership and Maja Mataric´ was featured as one received one of only two USC 2010 Medicine. The award is given for plify the spirit of innovation. Their work—spanning to processor reliability. research in the mechanical behavior of of L.A. Times Magazine’s five top “Los Faculty Lifetime Achievement awards pre- contributions to the growth and dev­ medicine, computing, communications, nano- materials. Narayanan, who holds the Angeles Visionaries.” The Viterbi School’s sented at USC’s 29th Annual Academic elopment of diagnostic ultrasound. technology and more—is changing our world. Andrea Armani has won a Viterbi Professorship in Engineering, senior associate dean for research and a Honors Convocation. Nadler, an inter- An assistant professor of the Ming Hsieh Presidential Early Career Award, the was cited for his contributions to CS professor, with joint appointments in disciplinary systems planning expert and Milind Tambe of CS and ISE won Department of Electrical Engineering, Povinelli U.S. government’s highest honor for “human communication science and neuroscience and pediatrics, is a pioneer technology literacy advocate, is honored the 2010 Homeland Security Award for was recognized for her work on nano-photonic scientists and engineers beginning their technologies and their applications to in the design of socially assistive robots. for his many “contributions to the univer- Border and Transportation Security from mechanics, studying ultra-small structures that independent careers. Armani, of the engineering systems development.” sity, the profession and the community.” the Christopher Columbus Fellowship can be used to manipulate light signals. Mork Family Department of Chemical Prasanna, the Charles Lee Powell Gerard Medioni of CS and Alan Foundation. The award recognizes the “Advances in nano-fabrication techniques Engineering and Materials Science (ChE/ Chair in Engineering (EE), was honored Willner of EE have won 2010 HP Labs Aiichiro Nakano of CS was team’s ARMOR, IRIS and GUARDS make it possible to pattern materials on a scale MS) and the Fluor Early Career Chair for his work in the field of parallel and Innovation Research grants. Medioni and named a Fellow of the American multi-agent security systems, which smaller than the wavelength of light,” said in Engineering, also won a 2010 NIH distributed computing. Willner’s projects were among those of Physical Society. Nakano, who also holds are in use at LAX and several other Povinelli. “I want to harness this capability to Director’s New Innovator Award for her only 52 universities to receive funding appointments in physics and astronomy, gateways. With Carl Kesselman of make nano-photonic devices for optical com- work in developing ”ultrasensitive nano- Shri Narayanan, of EE and the from nearly 400 submissions across 36 was elected during a highly selective pro- ISE, Tambe is also an inaugural recipient munications, solar energy and materials.” lasers for epigenetics investigations.” Department of Computer Science (CS) countries. Medioni’s grant will sup- cess by which no more than one half of of the Viterbi School’s Award for Use- Her work is integral to developing faster with appointments also in linguistics port his “Real-Time Face Tracking and one percent of the society membership Inspired Research. communications systems and improving technol- Iraj Ershaghi, the Omar B. and psychology, received the 2010 Expression Inference from a Video” proj- each year is recognized by their peers for ogy to capture solar energy. Milligan Chair of Petroleum Engin­ Distinguished Faculty Service Award ect, and Willner’s award will continue to elevation to Fellow status. Alan Willner was elected an Povinelli joined the Viterbi School in fall eering (ChE/MS), has received the John for his service to the Senate-Provost fund his work with modern data centers. International Fellow of the United 2008. She received her Ph.D. in physics in 2004 Franklin Carll Award from the Society University Research Committee over Aristides Requicha, the Gordon S. Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engin­ from MIT and completed her postdoctoral work of Petroleum Engineers. A highly sought the last five years. Other recent awards Najmedin “Najm” Meshkati Marshall Professor of Computer Science eering. Willner of EE was one of only at Stanford University. She currently holds the media expert following the Deepwater include an IEEE Signal Processing was selected to participate on a federal and also of EE, was invited to serve a five academics across the nation voted Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Horizon explosion and Gulf oil spill Society Best Paper Award and an advisory panel on the Deepwater two-year term as a distinguished lecturer into the academy. He was elected for his Junior Gabilan Chair and has received many this spring, Ershaghi was selected for Interspeech Emotion Challenge Horizon explosion and Gulf of Mexico of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council. work in optical communications. awards, including an Army Young Investigator his work in petroleum development Award, presented at the 10th Annual oil spill. Najm, of the Sonny Astani Distinguished lecturers are selected based Award and a Presidential Early Career Award. and recovery. Conference of the International Speech Department of Civil and Environmental on their contributions to nanotechnology She is the third Viterbi professor to be named Communication Association. Engineering and the Daniel J. Epstein and their international reputation. to the TR35 in the last two years; Andrea Armani Petros Ioannou of EE was . and Ellis Meng were named to the 2009 class. elected a Fellow of the Institution of Bhaskar Krishnamachari of Other previous winners include such world- Engineering and Technology (IET) in EE and CS has been named this year’s changing innovators as Jerry Yang of Yahoo, recognition of his work in control and recipient of the Frederick Emmons Google co-founder Larry Page, and Linus transportation systems. A pioneer in Terman Award by the American Society Torvalds of Linux fame. “adaptive cruise control” systems, of Engineering Education. ASEE and the Ioannou also received the IET Heaviside award’s sponsor, the Hewlett-Packard Medal for Achievement in Control. Co., selected Krishnamachari for his early overall contributions, including his textbook Networking Wireless Sensors Gerald Aiichiro Aristides Koping “Kirk” Milind Carl Alan (Cambridge University Press, 2005). Nadler Nakano Requicha Shung Tambe Kesselman Willner

12 < PARTICLES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU PARTICLES > 13 ON CAMPUS 14

< Capstone studentsJulianVergel deDios,PatFoleyandRyanRomanowskihopetobringtheirproduct tomarket.

ON CAMPUS ON Capstone Projects. participated in this year’s Senior Design computer science student teams who over two semesters by two Viterbi School disabilities. They are the result of efforts pendence of people with developmental on a shopping list. and creates ideal routes based on items device downloads maps of local stores navigate public transportation. Another One mobile creation helps people NEEDS REAL FILL TO DEVICES BUILD UNDERGRADS SCHOOL VITERBI Aiding PeoplewithDevelopmentalDisabilities activity at Trader Joe’s.at activity shopping independent facilitates that application mobile the of Screenshots FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU Both are designed to bolster the inde - Employment Services at AbilityFirst. Isis McDonald, director of Business and as knowing which bus to take,” recalls independently, to do routine tasks such needing easy-to-use devices to live more better understand their needs. interacted with disabled individuals to disabilities, the students observed and and employs people with developmental dangerous people and situations. complex task or evaluating potentially also have trouble sequencing steps in a solving and communication. They might comprehension, memory, problem- disabled may experience problems with from Wheeler that the developmentally- Hospital Los Angeles. Developmental Disabilities at ChildrensUSC University Center for Excellenceof in USC and associate director of the professor of the Keck School of Medicinecomputer science, and Barbara Wheeler,between a David Wilczynski, a professor of “We talked about many communities Then, at AbilityFirst, which trains Wilczynski’s students first learned The work grew out of collaboration devices they developed in the class. to produce and market a variation of the of disability.” was in concert with needs in the field students had produced a design that says Wilczynski. “Our USC engineering munity who saw the work was excited,” feedback in the development process. student presentations in order to provide ership and disability experts to attend all intervention when needed. successes and “errors” for assistance and follow. The application keeps a record of logical navigational pattern for Sarah to the list by zones, and presented it in a the specific items sought by Sarah, sorted specific store (in this case, a Trader Joe’s). an application that downloads maps of a matic, annotated shopping list, as well as tasking system that featured an auto Syndrome who lives with her family. Sarah, a 21-year-old woman with Down’s shopping activity by people such as work on facilitating more independent me get to Orchard and Adams?” example: “Excuse me, could you help be enlisted for help by broadcasting, for synthesizer, which enables bystanders to with a panic button and a smart speech user get lost. The device is also outfitted suggests corrective actions should the change—literally at every turn—and juncture where a person’s route might safely and on time. portation to get to and from their jobsite designed to help clients use public trans sive work resulted in a mobile device drawing board. in mind, the students went off to the Several students hope to find a way “Everyone in the disability com Wilczynski invited engineering lead The device identified the location of The students created a navigation/ A second group chose to focus their The device provides prompts at every One student group’s weeks of inten With the needs they had observed - // -

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- - YannisYortsos. Eileen Bartholomew with Viterbi Dean Dean Viterbi with Bartholomew Eileen The X PRIZE Foundation—theENERGY non-SOLAR AROUND CHALLENGE CONTEST A DEVELOP STUDENTS VITERBI X PRIZELabStartsUpatUSC different parts of the world. opposite ends of the scale, dealing with discussion groups of eight. mended ways to market the contest in background technology and recom ogy to marketing. They then explored about all aspects of solar, from technol and Marshall schools. 16 students came from both the Viterbi Marshall School of Business. The lab’s Entrepreneurial Studies in the USC director of the Lloyd Greif Center for E. Mann Institute, and Gene Miller, Jonathan Lasch, director of the Alfred present to judges for consideration. PRIZEs in the solar energy area to specifications for new potential X around the task. The goal was to create a spring 2010 course Engineering 493X of the new USC lab, which launched energy to make life better was the focus development and many other areas. sciences, environment, education, globalviduals to tackle global challenges in thehumanity by incentivising teams and indi radical breakthroughs for the benefit of the University of Southern California. lems—launched a laboratory in 2010 at talented researchers to tackle big prob prize-money contests to encourage profit organization that nurtures big The result? Two team proposals on The students attended guest lectures The co-directors of the effort were Developing technology around solar The Foundation aims to bring about -

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- X PRIZE Students Kyle Obergfell, Lorenzo Mangubat and Anna Harley-Trochimcyzk. Anna and Mangubat Lorenzo Obergfell, Kyle Students PRIZE X “impressed with the students’ enthu Foundation, said the organization was of prize development for the X PRIZE generation car. Insurance, for development of a next- lunar lander contest, and Progressive sponsors have included Google for a energy challenges. In the past, X PRIZE reward research success in solving solar companies willing to put up cash to and night. Angeles mass transit system, day power the Orange Line of the Los solar system with enough oomph to This second proposal involved a gigantic proposal focused on giving citizens of enough power to light a lantern. special tools or skills to install, and store device should be cheap, require no live off the power grid.) The ideal solar nighttime power. (Almost 95 percent the African nation of Malawi access to Eileen Bartholomew, senior director The next step involves seeking Microsystems in Africa.

Megasystems in Los Angeles. This

o learn more about the X PRIZE the contests similar to the one that spurred Foundation to encourage and promote flying across the Atlantic, established the that Charles Lindbergh won in 1927 by inspired by the story of the Orteig Prize 1995 when Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, entrepreneurship.” right blend between technology and develop in our students, including the precisely the qualities we are trying to says the X semester on solar energy.” siasm and the caliber of their work this The X PRIZE mission began in Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos Spirit of St. Louis  T Foundation, visit: XPRIZE.org PRIZE effort “encourages flight.

// ON CAMPUS ON

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15 Photos by Jon Vidar

Does the Sun Shine Brightly Enough in Hawaii? VITERBI SCHOOL AIMS Forging Global Engineering Education VITERBI SCHOOL DEAN DELIVERS A FOUR-PART LECTURE SERIES ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY. TO WIDEN PIPELINE FOR USC AND PEKING UNIVERSITY COLLABORATE FOR IPODIUM CLASS PH.D. RECRUITING “If you have a particular plot of Teams.” The semester culminated land, do you choose to build a solar farm Realizing that it’s the students with a four-week on-site collaborative for photovoltaics, biomass or agriculture?” that help comprise a top- team project session at the PKU campus asks Yortsos. “How do you make best notch research and teaching in Beijing. use of the land and the surface area institution, the Viterbi School The i-Podium concept is simple: it provides? launched its inaugural Recruitment of Students from different cultures can “Ultimately, it becomes an issue Engineering Achievers (REACH) event learn as much from each other as of what decision society will make,” on campus this fall. from the course instructor. And cross- he concludes. REACH invites junior, senior and recently- cultural education is important in Yortsos also addressed the important graduated national high achievers from groups teaching future leaders emerging socio- element of energy efficiencies, the role historically underrepresented in engineering to technical subjects. of nuclear power, and also the social and visit campus for a three-day, all-expense paid Lu and Tian designed the course so political issues that are critical factors in the doctoral program preview. that the PKU and USC students could implementation of renewable resources. They met with faculty and current students, The Chinese undergraduate students participate in live interaction in class lec- Warren Tichenor II, a sophomore explored research opportunities, and learned and their USC counterparts from the tures in real time, hold online discussions double majoring in aerospace engineer- more about Viterbi doctoral programs. They Viterbi and Marshall Schools sat in rows and brainstorm online, offline and also ing and economics, says he learned also toured campus, attended special work- of four, facing each other with backs face-to-face. The course subject matter from Yortsos environmental truths that shops, and learned more about the graduate straight and faces attentive. leverages the idea of cultural diversity “I wouldn’t easily find searching the application and admissions process. Nothing less than the Pacific Ocean, inspiring technological innovation for Internet or reading the news.” “Bringing talented students to campus to a 16-hour time difference and a video- the global markets. “The course has made me more visit with faculty and current students is the conference connection separated them. Lu said the deans, faculty and staff well-versed in talking about energy at most effective way for them to discover all that Meanwhile, Viterbi School Professor at USC and PKU, as well as support from all levels,” says Tichenor, who part- USC has to offer,” says Margie Berti, Associate Stephen Lu’s voice broadcast maxims the Distance Education Network made nered with mechanical engineering Dean for Doctoral Programs. regarding the global economics and inno- the course possible. He also thanked student and fellow sophomore Damian vation opportunities of globalization. an anonymous donor, whose generous Pherigo to research and present a “What’s really behind the subprime support enables students from two top project about Hawaii. mortgage crisis?” asked Lu, who is the universities in USA and China to learn Yortsos says the island state provides David Packard Chair in Manufacturing with, and from, each other interactively a unique case study for the implementa- Engineering and a professor of Aerospace and collaboratively without leaving home. tion of renewable resources due to its and Mechanical Engineering. As the donor commented, this is geographic location and endless miles “Oversupply of credit. Traditional indeed the true spirit of the learner- of coastline. Its population of 1.3 million economic theory breaks down and doing- centered education paradigm and a has a daily energy consumption rate of business-as-usual will go terribly wrong.” new chapter of global education in the about 1.9 million KwH. Mentoring events encourage Viterbi Ph.D. students 24 student faces registered agreement 21st century. // Viterbi Dean Yannis Yortsos, flanked by Viterbi students Warren Tichenor II (left) and Damian Pherigo. Tichenor and Pherigo examined and postdocs to pursue rewarding careers in academia from two classrooms on the USC and Hawaii’s current mix of traditional and and research after graduation. PKU campuses, 6,000 miles apart. Last spring, Viterbi School Dean Yannis knowledge and ease,” says Yortsos, renewable energy production and looked In a groundbreaking exercise com­ Yortsos concluded his series on sustain- whose work on energy has informed at the potential for generating all its The event comes on the tails of continu- bining both the international and virtual, able energy with a packed lecture and the curriculum. needs through alternative methods. ing success in Ph.D. recruitment. Quality and Lu this spring launched the inaugural a student presentation of a project that “Such a foundation is essential to “We found that the potential for solar, diversity indicators are up this year over last in course of the i-Podium program, an examined the viability of powering the helping ensure our global society will in particular, would be huge,” Pherigo nearly all categories including GPA, GRE scores experimental, cooperative global innova- state of Hawaii completely with renew- be able to address population growth says. “The concentration of the sun’s and fellowships accepted by domestic students, tion education program between USC able energies. with finite resources and the need for energy in Hawaii is a lot greater than women and underrepresented minorities. and the prestigious Chinese university, Yortsos conceived of the four-part an increasing economic output in a way other places.” More specifically, the Viterbi School has Peking University (PKU). lecture series to imbue students with that’s sustainable,” he says. Yet, even with all that potential, more than doubled the number of Ph.D. “i-Podium is the next step on our a comprehensive understanding of the The sustainability series focused less than 2 percent of Hawaii’s energy fellowships accepted by women, and nearly vision for Technology-Enhanced Access real-world challenges to using renewable on the potential of renewable energy needs are currently being met through doubled acceptances from underrepresented to the Classroom,” says Viterbi Dean energies to meet our power needs— sources, mostly based on solar (first- solar power. The students also looked at minority students (African Americans, Hispanic Yannis Yortsos. using quantitative reasoning. The series hand, such as using photovoltaics windpower, wave power and geothermal Americans, and Native Americans). For the three-unit class, Lu and his was delivered outside the curriculum to or biomass; second hand, such as wind; energy sources. “These trends serve as a strong indicator counterparts at PKU, Dean Shiyi Chen about 50 selected Viterbi undergraduates and third-hand, such as waves) but A version of the sustainability that Viterbi is the first choice by top students and Prof. Jianqui Tian, brought together from all majors. also those based on nuclear. A key lectures was also presented as a micro­ over many of our competitor institutions,” says a handpicked group of 12 USC Viterbi Senior Associate Dean of Engineering Timothy Images of Peking University students and USC “Our engineering students—and issue related to solar energy-based seminar to entering USC freshmen and Marshall students and 12 PKU stu- Viterbi students are broadcast to each other. future leaders—must be able to speak of sources is real estate, namely “watts across all majors, just before the begin- Pinkston, who is also a professor of the Ming dents for a 23-week course in “Principle sustainability challenges with in-depth per square meter.” ning of the fall 2010 semester. // Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering. // and Practice of Global Innovation

16 < ON CAMPUS FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU ON CAMPUS > 17 PEER REVIEW Will T-Shirts Soon Power Cell Phones? GRAPHENE ORGANIC PHOTOVOLTAICS MAY PAVE THE WAY by Bob Melisso Intelligence: The Eyes Have It ultra-thin graphene sheets by first depositing carbon atoms in $16 MILLION PROJECT AIMED AT A CAMERA THAT CAN PROCESS AND RECORD by Eric Mankin the form of graphene films on a nickel plate from methane gas. Then they lay down a protective layer of thermo plastic over ive years ago, the Viterbi School’s Laurent Itti, working limitations of such human-based analysis,” says Itti. In other words, the graphene layer, and dissolve the nickel underneath in an acid with a colleague at UC Irvine, building on years of pre­ he’d like to create a system that needs no human intervention. bath. In the final step they attach the plastic-protected graphene Fvious work, published a groundbreaking paper on how Itti plans to design the software and hardware needed create to a very flexible polymer sheet, which can then be incorporated humans see the world. a “neuromorphic visual system for intelligent unmanned sen- into a OPV cell. Today, Itti, an associate professor of the Department of sors” to make visual surveillance systems smarter. It will pick The USC team has produced graphene/polymer sheets Computer Science, is heading a $16 million project attempting out novelty and important details in what their cameras record. ranging in sizes up to 150 square centimeters that in turn can be to teach machines to see the world in the way humans do. This is a formidable undertaking. A camera simply records used to create dense arrays of flexible OPV cells, which convert Itti is building a visual system from the ground up, creating patterns of light and darkness, and varying color. solar radiation to electricity. a prototype intelligent eye. The insights that he’ll draw from his By contrast, the human vision system has evolved to seek One drawback? They’re not as efficient as silicon cells, which research may drive development of new tools to help diagnose out the specific visual signals critical to a creature’s survival, or generate 14 watts of electricity per square meter for every 1000 human problems in thought and perception. “possible threats and opportunities,” as Itti characterized them watts of sunlight, says Lewis Gomez De Arco, a doctoral student Itti’s new project, funded by the Defense Advanced in his earlier paper. and a member of the team that built the graphene OPVs. Research Projects Agency, builds on his previous effort called This involves complex circuitry in the retina, where the out- “Organic solar cells are less efficient; their conversion rate Neovision, which aimed for similarly lofty goals. However, puts from light detector cells are processed to give rise to twelve for that same one thousand watts of sunlight would be only Neovision relied on existing software systems not completely different types of visual “images” of the world. Complex neural 1.3 watts.” compatible with the neural systems Itti has discovered are circuits in visual cortex and deep-brain nuclei, including the But what graphene OPVs lack in efficiency, they can crucial to enabling cameras to pick out what is potentially superior colliculus, further process the images, which also drives potentially more than make up for in lower price and greater important in images. eye movements to focus on specific parts of the image. physical flexibility. Itti aims to develop a system that will not require human The plan is to model a complex interactive system to be able By covering extensive areas with inexpensive solar cells, says operators to peer continually at screens to make sense of what to understand the exact messages transmitted from the retina to Gomez De Arco, it may be possible to generate enough power to they see. Because existing sensors lack the intelligence to parse cortex and further to the colliculus, and how the brain cells under- Chongwu Zhou, holding up a section of solar graphene thin film. run printing presses. Such cells could even be made into fabric and summarize the data they collect, information overload stand them. It would then embed parallel transactions, using the and worn as power-generating clothing or hung as curtains. often results. same perception algorithms, into working silicon systems. “Our goal is to create intelligent general-purpose cognitive Working with researchers, a core team of engineers, Ph.D. University of Southern California team has produced vision sensors inspired from the primate brain, to alleviate the students and postdocs, Itti plans to create a whole series of flexible transparent carbon atom films that the prototypes, complete with breadboard hardware at a rate of one A researchers say have great potential for a new every six months. The work will comprise an ongoing back-and- breed of solar cells. Organic photovoltaic forth with researchers who will continue to refine understanding “Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have been proposed as a (OPV) cells have been proposed as a means to achieve low of how living eyes work. means to achieve low cost energy due to their ease of manufac- cost energy due to their ease of manufacture, light weight Viterbi Dean Yannis Yortsos said the school was exception- ture, light weight and compatibility with flexible substrates,” “and compatibility with flexible substrates. ally well-equipped to support the research. writes Chongwu Zhou, a professor of electrical engineering “We have state-of-the-art facilities for development of in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in a paper recently electronic and mechanical breadboards, brassboards and proto- published in the journal ACS Nano. types,” says Yortsos, “including a machine shop that provides The technique described in the article describes progress At the very least, graphene OPVs would be major advance precision machining capabilities from a highly trained staff.” toward a novel OPV cell design that has significant advantages, in at least one crucial area over a rival OPV design based” on For this project, Itti is partnering with researchers at UC particularly in the area of physical flexibility. Indium–Tin–Oxide (ITO). In the USC team’s tests, ITO cells Berkeley, Caltech, MIT, Queens University, Brown University, A critical aspect of any OPV photo-electronic device is a failed at a very small angle of bending, while the graphene- Arizona State University and Penn State University, along with a transparent conductive electrode through which light can couple based cells remained operational after repeated bending at company, Imagize, that specializes in the field. with active materials to create electricity. The new work indi- much larger stress angles. In addition to the work on artificial eyes, Itti is continuing to cates that graphene, a highly conductive and highly transparent Zhou and the other researchers on the USC team—which pursue basic research on natural ones. By studying slight varia- form of carbon made up of atoms-thick sheets of carbon atoms, included Yi Zhang, Cody W. Schlenker, Koungmin Ryu, and tions in the reactions of eyes of different humans to the same has high potential to fill this role. Mark E. Thompson in addition to Gomez de Arco—are excited stimulus, Itti believes, it may be possible to diagnose possible While graphene’s existence has been known for decades, by the potential for this technology. human attention or vision or information processing problems. it has only been studied extensively since 2004 because of the Their paper concludes that their approach constitutes a Laurent Itti with a robotic-assisted scenery model used to train and This comprises a medical version of the old idea that “the eyes difficulty of manufacturing it in high quality and in quantity. significant advance toward the production of transparent con- test neuroscience-inspired machine vision algorithms. One robot are a window to the soul.” // The Zhou lab reported the large-scale production of ductive electrodes in solar cells in the criteria of “abundance, arm controls the position of the sun, while the other moves objects graphene films by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) three low cost, conductivity, stability, electrode/organic film compat- around the scene. This creates hundreds of thousands of new years ago. In this process, the USC engineering team creates ibility and flexibility.” // scenarios for observation and analysis by the vision algorithms. Approved for public release by DARPA, Distribution Unlimited.

18 < PEER REVIEW FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU PEER REVIEW > 19 A Doctor in Your Pocket DELIVERING PERSONALIZED HEALTH CARE THROUGH YOUR CELL PHONE by Lenora Chu

magine getting real-time feedback from a doctor about your geographic location by GPS should an emergency interven- your eating and exercise habits. Getting prescriptions tion be needed. Ipersonalized to your height, weight and lifestyle habits. Health professionals can monitor and analyze the informa- Now envision having all this information streamed into your tion, and deliver real-time feedback through the phone display, pocket—onto your cell phone. text messaging, imaging and voice prompts. Researchers from the Viterbi School, in collaboration with Right now, KNOWME can text you reminders to give your- domain experts at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, have self a shot. In the future, KNOWME might direct an implanted developed a mobile technology platform for collecting, analyzing insulin delivery system to automatically increase delivery levels. and sharing biometric data about an individual’s physical, physi- “It’s not farfetched to think that the network might one day ological and, potentially, their emotional state. run complex algorithms that can identify irregular heartbeats, “Cell phones used to be just voice communication devices, detect an elderly slip-and-fall, or even determine our emotional then they morphed into data communication devices, and now state,” says Gaurav Sukhatme, a professor of computer science into entertainment devices,” says Murali Annavaram, a professor specializing in robotics and sensing. of the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering. One continuing challenge? Mobile phone batteries were “The next incarnation in this rapid progression is personal- not designed to support 24-hour biometric signal processing ized avatars. As avatars these devices know where we are, who with significant Bluetooth communications. we are, and what we are and eventually deliver value based on “We’re using the phone in new ways, so we must design user’s context.” new algorithms and new ways of processing signals that use less energy,” says Urbashi Mitra, an electrical engineering professor specializing in wireless communications. The team has the potential to consider patients with Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, movement disorders, cardiac can Right now, KNOWME abnormalities, autism, sleep apnea, geriatric health and post- text you reminders to give yourself a shot. In the future, traumatic stress disorder. KNOWME might direct an implanted insulin delivery With Donna Spruijt-Metz of Keck, the Viterbi team has “system to automatically increase delivery levels. outfitted teenage test subjects with sensors and Nokia 95 mobile units in an ongoing pediatric obesity study. “The teenagers are fascinated by their own data,” says Mitra. “As one youth put it, the experience was like having a doctor in Ted Berger in his laboratory with a “conformal multi-electrode array system” designed to function as an interface between a living slice of rat The Viterbi team’s ultimate goal? Enabling evidence-driven your pocket.” // brain tissue (shown on the video monitor) and microchip electronics (not shown). Such “neuron-silicon interfaces” are allowing biomimetic health care by developing systems and interventions” that are microelectronics to connect directly with the brain, and enabling them to serve as neural prostheses for the damaged brain. completely personalized. They imagine a world in which health care originates and evolves with the patient, providing real-time context and ‘just- in-time’ intervention and care, notes Shri Narayanan, a professor Spotlight: Ted Berger of electrical engineering. A PIONEER IN NEUROENGINEERING There is overwhelming evidence that a “one-size fits all” approach to health care can be ineffective and even potentially dangerous. ne of his biomedical engineering graduate has developed pattern recognition systems that perform auto- Subtle and not-so-subtle physiological differences—which students once said that since meeting Ted Berger, mated identification of gunshots, footsteps, fence climbing and can vary dramatically within a single person’s body at different O“Every following moment has been an a-ha other events linked to security. times of day—can require substantially different doses of medi- moment for me.” This software is now used by the military and police protect- cations or even surgical procedures. That student is not alone. Over a three-decade career as ing vital assets and in fighting inner city crime. For example, a diabetic’s blood sugar level before and after a biomedical engineering professor and decorated scientist, Recently he began working with two Viterbi School students a meal can vary dramatically. The most effective treatment Berger has not only inspired many young students but also made to investigate how the brain’s non-neuron parts, specifically approach requires more than just a blood sugar check to deter- groundbreaking contributions to the field of neuroengineering. astrocytes, contribute to brain function. (The students won a mine whether insulin is needed. Consider just one heady project in his vast portfolio—one $100,000 Qualcomm project grant). The technical foundation for the team’s work is the that might have implications for people affected by strokes, The potential payoff is gigantic, says Berger, who is also KNOWME Network, a suite of wearable, wireless sensors that epilepsy or Alzheimer s disease. Director of the USC Center for Neural Engineering and the send streaming data to mobile phones. In this effort, the Viterbi professor of biomedical engineer- David Packard Professor of Engineering. The mobile devices collect, store and transmit data from the ing is leading a team of USC scientists to design and build an If we begin to factor in astrocytes, it’s going to completely sensors to a secure web server. The data might include when implant computer chip that could restore mental function in change our understanding of how synaptic transmission works you last ate or how much you are physically exerting yourself. It damaged or diseased brains. and it will change our understanding of how drugs work in Viterbi Professor Murali Annavaram (in grey blazer), flanked by can note your current blood pressure, blood sugar levels, elec- KNOWME graduate students (L to R) Ming Li, Sangwon Lee and By extending principles of neural encoding learned from the brain. // trocardiograph signals or galvanic skin responses. It can pinpoint Harshvardhan Vathsangam. developing the “cognitive implant” computer chip, Berger also

20 < PEER REVIEW FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU PEER REVIEW > 21 Understanding Cancer By Tackling Its Triggers NEWS FLASH: A PECASE AWARD NIH TAPS VITERBI PROFESSOR TO DEVELOP FOR ANDREA ARMANI TECHNIQUE TO STUDY DNA by Lenora Chu Andrea Armani has won the U.S. government’s magine the day a machine can draw your blood, screen highest honor for scientists and engineers beginning it for genetic mutations and chemical variations that can their independent careers. cause cancer, and pop out a drug tailor-made for your The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists I and Engineers (PECASE) embodies the high priority DNA. That hypothetical drug would target—and fix—the point irregularities which have accumulated over time that placed by the government on “maintaining the lead- can lead to the formation of tumors—and cancer. ership position of the United States in science.” The National Institutes of Health has tapped Andrea The PECASE, which was awarded to Armani for Armani to develop a key instrument that takes researchers a 2009, recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers step closer to realizing this vision. who show exceptional potential for leadership at the “Personalized cancer drug delivery? Depending on the frontiers of knowledge early in their careers. approach, it could be as soon as 10 to 15 years away,” says Armani will receive a $200,000 grant per year Armani, an assistant professor of the Mork Family Department for five years, for a total of $1 million. She will use of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. the award to study integrated photonic devices for Armani has received the NIH’s 2010 New Innovator Award, biological and chemical detection applications. which recognizes a select group of researchers with “excep- Michelle Povinelli, an assistant professor of the tional creativity” and bold approaches that “have the potential Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, also to produce a major impact on broad, important problems in received a 2009 PECASE award. biomedical and behavioral research.” A nanophotonics expert, Povinelli was highlighted in The award amounts to a $2.3 million research grant over the Spring 2010 issue of the Viterbi Engineer magazine. five years to investigate epigenetics, the study of changes in DNA which are associated with cancer. To see that story, visit Analysis of these DNA changes has shown promise in the http://viterbi.usc.edu/viterbiengineer. early detection and treatment of ovarian and other types of cancer, says Armani. But current research methods are only able to capture snap- shots of these DNA changes, instead of monitoring the process microfabrication processes—while the other side focuses on continuously. Therefore, they miss information that could be chemistry and biology. A simple lab coat and goggles might vital to understanding processes that have been linked to cancer suffice over there, she says. and other diseases, like Huntington’s and diabetes. “This NIH project represents the perfect merging of my The sensitivity or resolution of many of these techniques expertise,” she says. The first part of the project focuses is also very poor. “It’s like trying to watch a TV show through on building the nanolaser instrument, while the second half static,” says Armani. funds the DNA experiments. Her method will push the field straight to high-definition. The goal? What Armani calls “un-doing” these triggers Armani proposes to develop an ultrasensitive nanolaser Andrea Armani with the computer-controlled bioinstrument and computer system she and her students will modify to perform DNA detection experiments. that can cause cancer. that would allow her to detect changes in DNA as they’re happening in real-time. This device will also allow her to Yortsos. “She has the vocabulary and the language to speak with She will focus first on developing the instrument and

study a single DNA strand in isolation, rather than groups of the medical professionals with which engineers must work in performing initial proof-of-concept experiments using hundreds to thousands of strands as researchers must do with tandem to solve society’s most pressing problems.” known triggers, such high concentrations of common current technology. Armani explains it like this. Like in any other field, solvents and cleaning agents. Part of this process involves As DNA binds to the surface of the nanolaser, the “color” communication is critically important. Most hurdles in this taking a single strand of DNA, exposing it to a harsh or lasing wavelength emitted by the laser will change. As the field spring from an inability for engineers and physicians chemical and seeing whether a specific change is initi- DNA changes, the color will change again. The improved to communicate.“Being able to excel in this field requires ated. Ultimately she’d like to be able to warn people which resolution is a result of the precision with which the color can researchers to dive in,” says Armani, who received a bachelor’s triggers to avoid. In the future, she plans to move the be monitored. degree in physics from the University of Chicago, and Ph.D. instrument to the Epigenome Center at the Keck School of Armani—and her lab, for that matter—is uniquely equipped in applied physics with a minor in biology from the California Medicine and work with her collaborators there. “There are to build this instrument; her postdoctorate work spanned both Institute of Technology. truly some of the world experts in this field at Keck, and I the chemical engineering and biology departments at the “The first biology course in graduate school was like learning am looking forward to collaborating with them to explore California Institute of Technology. a second language. But by the fourth course, it became apparent the full potential of this instrument.” Viterbi Dean Yannis Yortsos says this background equips that many of the underlying concepts were the same, they just Armani joined the Viterbi School in 2008 as an assistant Armani with the knowledge to walk that gap between engineer- had different names.” professor, and rapidly began adding awards and distinctions ing and medicine. Her laboratory setup illustrates this duality perfectly. One to an already distinguished resume. In 2009, Armani was Left: In this DNA rendering, two strands are normal while the third has a region which can cause cancer; Right: A sensitive nanolaser device, shown by electron microscope, which “Andrea’s knowledge puts her in the company of the wing focuses on developing new types of optical devices— named to MIT’s coveted TR35 list, which recognizes the Armani relies on for her DNA detection work. It is smaller than the width of a human hair. few people in the world who can tackle cancer in this way,” says where you might wear a tip-to-toe suit to keep dust away from world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35. //

22 < PEER REVIEW FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU PEER REVIEW > 23 Data, Data, Data: Society is inextricably inter- NEW FORMS, BIG VISION connected, and the amounts of data that come out of its complex interactions exceed our capacity to store it.

Indeed, our cell phones and networked computers and research labs and sensors are creating bits of data—0s and 1s in computer language—on an increas- ingly mind-boggling scale. By one estimate, humankind created 150 exabytes (a billion gigabytes) of data in 2005. In 2010, just five years later, it will create nearly 10 times that amount. USC played a significant role in the inauguration of this information explosion decades ago, when researchers at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) played major role in the creation of the Internet and email. (See page 5 for more about ISI’s role) BY ROBERT BRADFORD, This quest continues today. A group of leading Viterbi faculty and research- LENORA CHU AND ers have made it their mission to address data on this large scale and ask themselves on a daily basis: How do we make sense of what we’re collecting ERIC MANKIN in every domain imaginable? And how can our findings be put to good use in developing applications that benefit society? This feature will examine how our researchers are incorporating this data deluge in the school’s long-term strategic vision: by working on developing game-changing applications that range from language translation and intelli- gent video surveillance to terrorism prevention and environmental monitoring; by effectively dealing with infrastructure issues along the way, reaching out to experts in other disciplines such as computational biology and creative arts; and by addressing advancements in network and social interactions. We invite you to read about our work in not only collecting, processing and analyzing large-scale data, but also in creating new forms with which to address those 0s and 1s.

24 < FEATURES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU FEATURES > 25 Data, Data, Data: NEW FORMS, BIG VISION

There is tremendous opportunity in society’s “influx of data. This is revolutionizing the way we look — GAURAV SUKHATME, at science. PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

” Sukhatme builds robots that will Data-Driven Robot Learning Peeling Onion Skins explore the natural world—from oceans to forests to mountains—and bring back Stefan Schaal similarly sees the future Sitting in an office two doors down, data that people have been seeking for in autonomous intelligent systems as an statistical machine learning expert decades. He is currently working on interdisciplinary, data-driven endeavor. Fei Sha is pondering how the robot brain developing a fleet of robots that can be And Schaal, a professor of computer could make sense of data collected from deployed in the ocean to understand science, neuroscience and biomedical so many sensors. what is a largely unknown part of engineering, factors into his work on “In particular, the robot brain ‘sees’ the planet. humanoid motor control insights from the environment in a data format “I often tell people that we have a neuroscience and the behavioral sciences. represented by hundreds or thousands better map of the surface of Mars than His goal? To contribute to both a of numbers—each corresponding to a the ocean,” says Sukhatme. “But the better understanding of the human particular sensor’s output,” says Sha, a ocean has tremendous implications for brain and to develop technological motor professor of computer science. global health and communities. I take systems that have similar robust autono- Identifying patterns in those numbers mous performance as humans. is a daunting task and recurring theme my kids to the beach and my son can’t Fei Sha’s work shows that the organization of high- In the last two decades, research in modern statistical analysis. wait to jump in the water. I can see the dimensional disparate images on a 2-D plane reveals draw—it’s very fundamental to us. on autonomous intelligent systems has Sha and his collaborators are work- intrinsically clustering patterns. “We need to understand how pollu- increasingly turned towards inductive, ing on inventing algorithms to reduce tion from the Los Angeles River affects data driven, learning and reasoning the amount of these numbers, in an Sharing Information— approaches, says Schaal, who sees effort technically known as “dimension- coastal communities and we need to look Underwater at how pollution affects water quality a future in which learning and per- ality reduction.” across the globe.” formance in autonomous systems is The goal is to bring data from a John Heidemann, a research associ- Working with field biologists, achieved by machine learning from difficult-to-imagine high-dimensional ate professor of computer science at the A robotic glider from Gaurav Sukhatme’s laboratory develops and tests algorithms for massive amounts of data generated by space down to a more manageable low- Viterbi School’s Information Sciences underwater robotic sensor networks that intelligently gather ocean data. Sukhatme is programming two-meter robots that look like small torpedoes massive amounts of sensors. dimension space—in some cases even Institute (ISI), wants to make sure these “This is not unlike how we think that two-dimensional planes so that humans robot brains can share information after This summer, the New York Times For a group of Viterbi faculty, how- to intelligently gather data about brains must be set up to perform intel- can intuit knowledge—without losing they are deployed. began a series called “Your Brain on ever, this data deluge poses an entirely contamination or water quality or ligent information processing,” the essential structure and information in “I am interested in the networking Computers.” The stories examined how different set of challenges. They are not the implications of oil spills. The big says Schaal. the data. part of the piece,” says Heidemann. the “deluge of data can affect how people overwhelmed by data; in fact, they want problem with the BP spill, Sukhatme He works on understanding As an example, Sha used one of his “My team is developing the technology think and behave.” In major media to gather more and create new forms of argues, is that scientists have not been autonomous systems in motor control, techniques to place 500 pictures of USPS to allow these mobile robots to commu- sources throughout the world, from The it. They see limitless possibilities in how able to precisely measure the true perception and learning. Among the zip codes on a two-dimensional plane. nicate with each other.” Economist to CNN, one can read similar acquiring and analyzing new information extent of the spill. most salient projects are his work on Each picture has 784 pixels (each could Heidemann says he’s also interested stories on a regular basis. can enhance our understanding of the “There isn’t a nice 3D representation machine learning with humanoid robots be the output of a photoreceptor sensor). in a related question: How would you The stories echo a common theme: environment, improve global health, of this oil spill,” he says. “In a decade’s and autonomous legged robots—one of Yet, two-dimensional coordinates are put 100 sensors in the Port of Los the number of bits of data that are being bolster national security, transform the time, however, we could put robots in the the videos of his research with a robot sufficient to capture the essence of the Angeles to monitor water quality? “My produced in the world is overwhelming. way we create films, and the list goes on. ocean and we could get a clear represen- dog has reached almost a million hits structure hidden in these 500 X 784 num- group has looked at the wireless acous- Why? Scientists have become increas- tation of a major spill.” on YouTube. In this video, a small robot bers: Voila! On a graph, pictures of similar tic networking protocols to make that ingly proficient at translating the real “My goal is to design robots that in Deploying Robots dog demonstrates unparalleled perfor- zip code digits are clustered together. feasible,” he says. world of sights and sounds into digital the end can be an instrument for field mance in walking and climbing over “Once we accomplish this reduc- For Heidemann, the goal of new format. That accompanied by decades to Explore the World biologists. What I do in engineering very rough terrain. tion of dimensionality, we can apply methods to gather and analyze data in of rapid technological advances and “For me there is tremendous opportu- research is to do research that is rel- “One key to our research is inter- existing techniques for displaying and remote places is aligned with one of the humankind’s near-complete dependence nity,” says Gaurav Sukhatme, a professor evant, to think beyond the boundaries disciplinary work between engineering visualizing data,” says Sha. “While our mantras of the Center for Embedded upon computers have caused an explo- of computer science and co-director of of my discipline.” sciences and neuroscience,” Schaal capacity to acquire data becomes more Network Sensing, a research consortium sion in data that must be stored, mined the Robotics Research Lab. “I see the states, “and the glue for a greater under- powerful, techniques such as ours will that includes USC, UCLA, UC Merced, and analyzed. influx of data as a revolution in an entirely standing often comes from insights from play more important roles in helping UC Riverside and Caltech: “We want to different way. This is revolutionizing the statistical, data-driven learning.” both human and robot brains grasp make the unobservable…observable.” way we look at science.” knowledge and information.”

26 < FEATURES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU FEATURES > 27 Data, Data, Data: NEW FORMS, BIG VISION

We collect data every minute to understand the “behavior of traffic by generating a graph that shows the traffic pattern — CYRUS SHAHABI, DIRECTOR OF THE in a certain segment. INTEGRATED MEDIA SYSTEMS CENTER AT USC

through cell phones to see if they can get The ARMOR model runs and churns ” Sensors for Many Situations fine measurements of pollution in indi- out a randomized plan for where For Ramesh Govindan, the research vidual communities in the Los Angeles security personnel should go, and possibilities using sensors are vast. metropolitan area. The idea is pretty when. The software spews out deci- Govindan, a professor of computer simple: Have people take a picture of the sions based on calculated probabilities science and head of the Embedded sky with their cell phones with the time of breaches at certain locations, using Networks Laboratory at USC, works of day and upload that picture to the mathematical algorithms. with a team to move seamlessly from Internet. Sukhatme could then gauge, by Currently used by the Los Angeles developing sensors to assess the looking at the opacity of the atmosphere, World Airport’s Police Division since structural integrity of bridges to under- air quality levels in a specific area. 2007, ARMOR provides law enforcement standing the mating behaviors of birds Complementing this work, Govindan officers with an automated capability in remote forests. and his team have been working for to randomize K-9 searches and vehicle “When we deploy sensors in bridges, the past two years on a project to checkpoints at Los Angeles International we are getting a vibration signature. If develop software that would make it (LAX) Airport. The results have been you are trained, you can get a sense when easier for people to take videos on their The ARMOR model, developed by Milind impressive: It has been credited with the things are out of whack,” says Govindan. smart phones and upload them to the Tambe and his research team, uses a game- prevention of several loaded weapons “Now, we’re starting to use tiny sensors Internet. “We are no longer in an era theoretic approach to randomize airport being carried into LAX, and the seizure to gather the data wirelessly and down- security checks, such as this one in progress where researchers have to go out with of large quantities of drugs and several load it. You can get all the data at your at Los Angeles International Airport. specialized equipment to get informa- arrests at the airport. fingertips in real time.” tion—there is now a democratization of ARMOR has also been adopted by For Govindan, gathering large connected with our work on randomiza- information gathering,” says Govindan. the Federal Air Marshals Service and the amounts of data quickly and analyzing tion.” Tambe’s team found that by using “If you extrapolate to saying fast algorithms to solve large problems Transportation Security Administration. that data has been enhanced expo- that within five to 10 years 3 billion nentially by the proliferation of smart cast in a game-theoretic framework, they The Institute for Creative Technologies’ Light Stage 5 facial capture system allows for the people will have a smart phone, could develop the right type of ran- creation of realistic digital characters. phones. The concept of huge numbers the reach of information gathering Real-Time Data for of people recording and sharing data is domization that would be beneficial for becomes limitless.” Shahabi is also developing a unique called crowd sourcing, and Govindan and security and law enforcement agencies Emergency Response Mining Blogs, Twitter While the idea of understanding air navigation and information portal called his colleagues believe it has tremendous interested in defeating terrorists, who While the Tambe research group quality in a neighborhood is within reach, iCampus USC. The portal includes a Using Twitter information with a potential for researchers. often conduct surveillance and exploit addresses questions related to safety in there are myriad other ways that the three-dimensional rendering of the USC distinctly different approach, Yan Liu patterns in police activities. the air, Cyrus Shahabi, who directs the gathering and analyzing of information campus and its neighborhood, provid- specializes in mining vast amounts of Thus was borne the concept for Integrated Media Systems Center at Crowd Sourcing can contribute to public safety. ing geospatial information for students, data, ranging from biological data to Assistant for Randomized Monitoring Of USC, and his colleagues are looking at faculty and staff. The development of climate data to social media. A new and Air Quality Routes (ARMOR). the ubiquitous problem of ground traffic iCampus for USC has far-reaching impli- assistant professor of computer science Sukhatme, for example, is examining Data and Airport Security Tambe’s game-theoretic approach in Los Angeles. Shahabi wants to under- cations. It could, for example, provide at the Viterbi School, Liu spent the past how crowd sourcing might be used In 2004, Milind Tambe and his team requires huge amounts of data concern- stand how to predict traffic patterns so he real-time data that would allow the uni- few years at IBM Research in New York, to gather valuable information about were looking at the relatively esoteric ing the area under protection. Police can help emergency response teams— versity to analyze tweets or employ GPS where she developed machine learning air quality in the diverse communities idea of multiple-robot coordination with provide data of the area they wish to firefighters, paramedics or police—get to information to track the spread of disease and data mining algorithms to improve throughout Los Angeles. the concept of randomization. protect, such as volume of travelers and locations as quickly and efficiently on campus, or analyze building video and the efficiency of business transactions “Everyone in L.A. knows when it’s Around that time, CREATE traffic, from which ARMOR infers the as possible. GPS sensors to create an evacuation plan and generate insight on climate modeling a smoggy day,” says Sukhatme. “You (National Center for Risk and Economic relative importance of different terrorist “We collect data every minute to in the case of an emergency. for green energy. look at the mountains and if you can’t Analysis of Terrorism Events) was inau- targets in that area and effectiveness of understand the behavior of traffic by Beyond the emergency response uses, She says her work in large-scale data see them it’s a problem. I’m interested gurated at USC and several presentations possible police strategies. generating a graph that shows the traffic Shahabi says iCampus will serve as a mining from sources such as blogs can in the air pollution in my backyard.” emphasized that society works in a The data changes from one day pattern in a certain segment,” he says. social networking portal for day-to- have far-reaching implications. “Our So Sukhatme and his team are timely fashion. to the next, possibly from hour to hour. “The cost of sensors and information day use, from learning about campus work is trying to identify the main topics experimenting with crowd sourcing “And orderly fashion gets exploited technology is so cheap now. Our goal is events to finding apartments to rent from social perspectives—what com- by the terrorists,” says Tambe. “This to utilize this data to react to a crisis or around campus. munities of people are talking about,” perhaps prevent it altogether.” says Liu. “We are trying to apply this to

28 < FEATURES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU FEATURES > 29 Data, Data, Data: NEW FORMS, BIG VISION This is the coming of age of a new era in technology... “for the first time, we get to actually apply some of the ideas that we’ve been thinking about for decades. And we can produce something — PAUL DEBEVEC, SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING ACADEMY AWARD WINNER that is qualitatively different. AND RESEARCH ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

national security or public health. For they capture an world’s largest provider of professional “As a field,”” says Knight, “we’ve Bits and Biology example, people might discuss get- action character language translation services. made excellent progress over the last 10 IT’S NOT JUST TEST TUBES ANYMORE ting very specific symptoms on Twitter like Spider Man At first sight, the translation prob- years. However, it is still hard to translate accounts, and we can use this data to in a digital world lem seems straightforward and simple. more distant languages like Japanese and Biology was once a wet science, with most detect emerging disease outbreaks. flying through Bilingual dictionaries exist for most Chinese, to say nothing of the thousands research taking place in glassware-filled We have a lot of machine-learning Manhattan. languages, and it seems a computer could of human languages we haven’t yet labs. But in the 21st century, more and algorithms developed. Given the vast The results of easily look up a word in English, find touched. There’s a lot of work ahead The New Yorker more of the work of biology takes place amount of data available, these algo- Light Stage speak its Chinese counterpart, and proceed to of us.” in the digital realm. rithms are not scalable anymore, and this for themselves: assemble sentences. This year, Knight and collabora- The research of a number of USC is pushing the research into new areas.” The technology But attempts to perform these tasks tors at the Massachusetts Institute of faculty and researchers with joint appoint- helped Spider Man 2 earn an Academy illustrate just how complex speech Technology pulled off a remarkable feat Originally published in ments in computer science and biology Data-driven Award for Best Achievement in Visual actually is. One basic problem is that involving the ancient language Ugaritic, Shri Narayanan’s research focuses on are influential parts of this trend—no one Effects this year. individual words have multiple and which was spoken more than 3,000 enabling computers to understand and more so than Michael Waterman, widely Photographic Technique Debevec believes that the data- drastically different meanings. These years ago in what is now Syria. Using interact with human spoken language— regarded as the founding father of compu- and the non-verbal cues that accompany Twenty miles away from the university’s driven photographic techniques he are clear in context to humans, but the digitized inscriptions, his team was human communication. tational biology. main campus, Paul Debevec and his creates can be used for realistic simu- mysterious to computers. able to create a system that could map Waterman is co-author of a highly team at USC’s Institute for Creative lations to train military personnel or The English word ‘fly’ for example, Ugaritic words, written in one of the has provided fundamental insights into influential series of papers on genetic Technologies in Marina del Rey have an diplomats to interact with different can be a verb, “move on wings through world’s first alphabets, into Hebrew in how human speech is choreographed, mapping and has contributed some of the ambitious goal—to transform the way we cultures. And he is working on three the air,” or a noun meaning “a kind of a matter of hours. and has also helped shed light into what most widely-used tools in the field. One, view characters in films, and perhaps, to dimensional video conferencing tech- insect” or “a ball hit into the air.” The group’s findings were pre- happens when things fall out of sync. the Smith-Waterman algorithm, forms transform the way we make films. niques that will put a 3D image of a Knight and Marcu were part of a sented in Sweden at the Association Narayanan is also developing tech- the basis for many sequence comparison Debevec wants to precisely capture person from Seattle in the conference movement that attacked the problem for Computational Linguistics, which nologies to generate data to understand programs such as fingerprint mapping and, the shape, shine, color and texture of an room of a company’s headquarters in statistically; and as computers gained in Knight will lead as president beginning typical and atypical human behavior later, the Human Genome Project. actor’s face down to the level of each skin New York. “It will be the closest thing power, they discovered clever ways to in 2011. at a level and detail never possible or Michael Arbib has been working pore, crease and wrinkle. These detailed imaginable to the original Star Wars avoid dead ends and improve the prod- attempted before. Narayanan and his for years on subjects like mirror neurons, scans were used by WETA Digital in scenes where Darth Vader was talk- uct. Early success came when they chose Human Communication colleagues have created instrumented neural networks, and neuroinformatics. their process of creating Avatar’s photo- ing with his subordinates on a different as a base trios of words rather than single environments, or smart rooms, with Irving Biederman specializes in unravel- realistic digital humans and humanoid ship,” says Debevec. words. The computer power required Technologies arrays of multiple cameras, microphones, ing the information riddles of perception, aliens, which have been lauded as a “This is the coming of age of a new to do this is far, far greater than simple Written language is complex enough, motion-capture equipment and even including shape and object recognition. groundbreaking achievement in the era in technology,” he says. “For the first dictionary lookups. but Shrikanth Narayanan, the Andrew physiological sensing capabilities to And two joint-appointment recruits evolution of digital filmmaking. time, we get to actually apply some of J. Viterbi Professor of Engineering and develop a deeper understanding of have recently joined USC. Ting Chen Avatar is but one of the films that the ideas that we’ve been thinking about holder of joint appointments in electrical human interaction. analyzes genetic variations that cause Debevec has worked on: the list includes for decades. And we can produce some- engineering, computer science, linguis- The situations Narayanan is studying human diseases, and is also working to Spider Man 2, Spider Man 3, King Kong, thing that is qualitatively different.” tics and psychology, is attempting to help include distressed conditions, as in mari- estimate and predict how proteins func- Superman Returns and Hancock. computers understand and interact with tal issues in couples, and socio-cognitive tion. He is currently working on designing Debevec is pioneering a new way Machine Language human spoken language as well as the difficulties, such as autism spectrum new algorithms to analyze tetra-bytes of to capture and manipulate data. At the non-verbal cues that accompany human disorders. They have been advancing a data that are generated by the 3rd genera- Light Stage studio at ITC, he is working Translation communication. new area of engineering called behav- tion of DNA sequencing machines. with the traditional challenge of captur- Daniel Marcu and Kevin Knight, both For one NIH-funded project, ioral signal processing that is focused on Xianghong ‘Jasmine’ Zhou special- ing the right light for actors in bold ways. research professors at ISI, manipulate Narayanan and his collaborators at a multimodal, data-driven approach to izes in pulling out patterns and regularities “We will shoot almost 500 digital data for human understanding and his Signal Analysis and Interpretation understanding and describing human from vast amounts of existing genomic images at 12 megapixels to get just one communication, specifically machine Laboratory (SAIL) have been using new behavior quantitatively, leading to novel data, often across database lines. Zhou is facial expression. That’s 144 gigabytes for language translation. Among their real-time magnetic resonance imaging human-centered computing capabilities. currently applying her sophisticated data- a single image that can be used in a film,” achievements is a highly successful technologies to help uncover the myster- Narayanan’s group is also work-

mining techniques to search for genetic Debevec explains. The detail, however, startup company, Language Weaver, Photo: The Louvre ies of human language production. The ing on advancing modern multilingual causes of diseases including cancer and the creates strikingly realistic images that which was recently acquired for $42.5 The Ugaritic language, depicted here on a tremendous number of image sequences technologies, which rely heavily on degenerative processes of aging. // directors and cinematographers need as million by the British company SDL, the tablet of Ugarit gods. with synchronized audio data generated real-world data of speech, text and

30 < FEATURES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU FEATURES > 31 Data, Data, Data: NEW FORMS, BIG VISION Engineering + Communications = Data-centric computing design and application are part of the Viterbi School’s future. It’s not just a New Frontiers in “simple reflection of the fact that nowadays it’s trendy to study data—we should continue to expand our capabilities Media and Technology — SHANGHUA TENG, CHAIR OF THE VITERBI in this field, building on our diverse strengths. DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE With the idea that engineers and communicators can explore new frontiers by working side-by-side, faculty from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Annenberg School for Communication spoken language. They are studying “Researchers are already building ” Lerman and a colleague analyzed entirely selfishly,” says Kempe. “Yet, & Journalism met in the spring to discuss a The Issue of Provenance everything from the patterning of speech machines that can talk, listen, understand, postings in the site’s “upcoming” list of when you look around you, you observe plan for fostering research collaborations Speaking of patterns, Yolanda Gil of sounds across the languages of the world respond, perhaps even laugh and sing,” stories, which either disappear into the massive amounts of altruistic behavior and joint course offerings. ISI has become embedded in studying and the correspondences between two Narayanan says. “The greatest challenge ether or get “promoted” to the main pages all the time.” “We have expertise on both sides: a broad range of knowledge technolo- languages, to automatically recognizing is in how we can bring these together in of the site depending on the number of He and Chen have applied a natural on technology, and on communications,” gies, receiving most recently a National human speech and translating between meaningful and societally relevant ways.” recommendations by users. model of altruism to scenarios as diverse says Viterbi Dean Yannis Yortsos, who Science Foundation grant aimed at facili- two distinct spoken languages. For her method, Lerman drew upon as traffic in a congested city and vaccina- hosted the forum along with Annenberg tating the sharing of scientific workflows. Advances in signal processing (which mathematical equations similar to the tion decisions in social networks. Dean Ernest Wilson III. Algorithms to The key problem Gil isolates is one tackles sensor-generated data), machine ones used by biologists to describe the The starting point was a concept long “Combining and leveraging the two she calls “provenance,” which addresses learning and pattern recognition (which Predict Popularity collective behavior of social insects. established by game theory: the Nash will provide new insights, new methodolo- where things come from and whether model and discover patterns in data) Ed Hovy, a senior researcher at ISI who has What she found was that the top Equilibrium. That’s a situation in which gies and will help create new products.” they can be trusted. depend on representative data to create worked in a wide range of fields, including 30 Digg users—the so-called “super no player has anything to gain by chang- Take spectrum sharing and allocation. Internet pioneer Vint Cerf character- the ability to automate data analysis and natural language processing, made an early users”—were responsible for the vast ing his strategy unilaterally. Viterbi researchers can develop algorithms izes the issue with provenance: “The interpretation. Examples include auto- and striking contribution to this area when majority of the stories posted to the front It turns out that Nash Equilibria in for getting text messages through con- problem is—and this is true of books and matically figuring outwho is saying what he and his research group analyzed the page of Digg. They’re linked to so many traffic routing can be extremely wasteful: gested environments; Annenberg faculty every other medium—we don’t know to whom and with what emotions not just online student discussions of class material other users, which makes their recom- If everyone is completely selfish in how study FCC policy. “That’s one area we can whether the information we find [on the from speech and spoken language but in a USC class. He and his colleagues mendations more visible. they want to get to work, everyone is a fruitfully explore together,” Yortsos says. web] is accurate or not.” from visual nonverbal communication found that it was possible to create an What about early reactions? Lerman loser. The result is stubborn congestion. Information should be accompanied cues and even physiological cues. algorithm that identified, precisely and pre- and her co-researcher, Tad Hogg of the However, Kempe found that if all the Already several interdisciplinary research by details of who produced it, how it was To get access to these rich, diverse dictably, which participants’ contributions Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, travelers were just a little altruistic, the projects are underway to develop: produced, and whether it was derived and appropriate data sets, Narayanan and were most highly valued by others. came up with the idea that by observing performance of the network drastically from other sources. These provenance • Message tailoring programs for food his lab have developed a variety of data Those class logs comprised a very how an item accumulates early votes from improves. Kempe’s work was unusual in that records are not difficult to capture in bank clients, who can receive recipes in gathering approaches. These include small digital world. More recently, readers, they could predict how popular a it quantified the value of altruism, showing principle, but are complicated by issues real-time via text message. human-centered experiments with actors Kristina Lerman of ISI examined the particular news item would be eventually that the price of anarchy with altruism is of intellectual property rights and privacy, wearing motion-capture suits (see pg. 11) popular Digg website to study the behav- become. “We can then use this ‘crowd significantly smaller than without. • Interactive videos to help reduce risk tampering and misrepresentation by third and studies of realistic interactions ior of web users and ultimately predict sourcing’ to predict whether the posted The understanding opens possibilities of sexually-transmitted diseases. parties, and even pure lack of motivation between doctors and standardized how popular a specific story might be. news item will go viral,” says Lerman. to policy makers to build incentives to patients speaking different languages. altruism into the system, finding ways to of information providers—which results • Multilingual speech translation tech- on incomplete and inaccurate records. nologies to assist medical patients with Another effort collects rich audio and Modeling the identify and reward drivers who behave to visual data of interactions between autis- optimize the road network, with predict- These challenges are being tackled by limited English proficiency. the Provenance Incubator Group, tic children and psychologists to develop Impact of Altruism able rewards. • Behavioral patterns for the Smart a new international effort Gil is organizing novel quantitative socio-behavior model- David Kempe, a professor of computer Another Chen and Kempe study Grid, a project with the Los Angeles within the umbrella of the World ing. Yet another develops technologies science, is another faculty member whose looked at the problem of epidemics and Department of Water and Power to Wide Web Consortium (W3C). What’s that understand behavioral patterns of research interests are strongly driven vaccinations. Before an epidemic, people apply information technology to energy needed, Gil says, is a new deeply rooted interest such as negativity, blame and by the desire to understand and model can pay a price (in money, time, even risk) production and distribution (Also effort to create rigorous but generally humor in a large collection of marital human interactions. to vaccinate themselves and their families involves USC College). accepted rules. therapy data from over 120 couples. In addition to modeling and analyzing or hope for the best. But not vaccinating “We need to develop a good under- Educational, commercial and societal social networks, he is particularly inter- has social consequences: You risk passing Faculty also discussed offering joint classes standing about how to represent, manage, applications for SAIL’s data-driven ested in game-theoretic concepts, their on the disease to others. designed around: and use provenance in an open system technologies abound, and include predictions of human behavior, “In contrast to the traffic routing such as the web,” says Gil. • New models of human machine automated language learning, personal- and computational implications. Among scenario,” says Kempe, “it is not enough The provenance of information communication ized voice and face-based biometrics for Graphical representation of how a story might other topics, in joint work with his Ph.D. if everyone is a little altruistic. They need may be questionable at times. But here’s secure access, and customer care support spread among connected users on social news student Po-An Chen, he is investigating to be a little altruistic and also coordi- • Automatic categorization of website Digg, according to Kristina Lerman’s what’s certain: The Viterbi School through detection of frustrated users. ways to model the notion of altruism and its nate their actions to protect the network Internet video content research. Green dots show users who have is at the forefront of creation and innovation impact on behavior in networked systems. well. On the positive side, altruism and already voted for the story, while red dots regarding all things data. We invite you to • Use of telenovelas to promote show users who have yet to vote for the story. “Most of traditional economics and coordination together always do lead to a continue to follow our breakthroughs in science and engineering Users are connected when their designated game theory assumes that everyone acts societally-preferable outcome.” // “friends” follow their activities. tackling the world’s complex challenges. //

32 < FEATURES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU FEATURES > 33 As the university’s chief academic “It is a testament to Max Nikias’ including minors, progressive degrees, President C. L. Max Nikias officer since 2005, he is credited with abilities that, from such an impressive joint degrees and joint classes. accelerating the university’s recent group of educators, he was unanimously He drove the creation of USC’s USC’S 11TH PRESIDENT IS WIDELY HAILED academic momentum, recruiting new recommended by the advisory commit- groundbreaking Visions and Voices initia- leadership, strengthening the academic tee,” Roski said. “During his 19 years tive in the arts and humanities, now in FOR HIS ENERGY, INNOVATIVE IDEAS AND SKILL medical enterprise, helping attract a as a faculty member and administrator its fourth year, which has drawn tens series of major donations to the institu- at USC, he has provided distinguished of thousands of undergraduates from IN BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS. tion, creating innovative cross-disciplinary service to the university in a variety all disciplines to a range of artistic and programs, enhancing the university’s of roles.” cultural programming. globalization efforts, and increasing sup- Although Nikias was widely expected Nikias launched other initiatives

port for students at the undergraduate, to succeed USC President Emeritus as well, including a quintupling of fund- Photo by Phil Channing graduate and doctoral levels. Steven B. Sample, he told the Daily ing for Ph.D. fellowships to $20 million Left to right: Maria, Niki, Max and Georgiana Nikias announcing the selection of C. L. Max Nikias as While serving as dean of the USC Trojan that he took nothing for granted, per year, a grant program for advancing outside Mudd Hall. Viterbi School of Engineering from and was thrilled when he got the official scholarship in the humanities and USC’s 11th president, Board of Trustees chairman 2001 to 2005, Nikias helped solidify the call. “In the whole space of higher educa- social sciences, and a program to recruit C.. L Max Nikias Edward P. Roski, Jr., called him “a remarkable school’s position as a top-tier engineering tion today, this is by far the very best leading interdisciplinary scholars as IN school, oversaw expansion of the school’s job,” he said. Provost’s Professors. ›› EDUCATION Graduated with honors from Famagusta and inspiring leader, a brilliant scholar, and the best possible biomedical engineering enterprise, and He called it “the greatest honor to He recruited new leadership to Gymnasium, a school in Cyprus that emphasizes developed its distance-learning program be given this opportunity to work toward the Keck School of Medicine of USC, sciences, history and Greco-Roman classics. Received person to lead our university forward,” an opinion that is into one of the largest in the country. realizing the dreams and aspirations of spearheaded the integration of the diploma from National Technical University of Athens, widely shared among faculty, students and alumni. He also established key partnerships the Trojan Family. school’s 19 faculty practice plans, and also known as National Metsovion Polytechnic, with corporations and led a record- “This incredible, wide-ranging uni- oversaw the transfer of USC University Greece’s oldest and most prestigious institution of Over the course of his career as a researcher, educator and breaking fundraising campaign that, versity represents an electric environ­ment, Hospital and USC Norris Cancer higher education. Earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees among many major gifts, brought in the one remarkably skilled at producing new Hospital from Tenet Healthcare from State University of New York at Buffalo. university administrator, Nikias has earned accolades for his $52 million school naming gift from ideas and new leaders to strengthen our Corporation to the university. ›› PROFESSIONAL Internationally recognized for Andrew and Erna Viterbi. He also society,” he added. Nikias also was instrumental in leadership, innovation and fundraising, as well as his ability pioneering research on digital signal processing and recruited 30 world-class faculty members “Moving USC forward, and accelerat- negotiating on behalf of the university communications, digital media systems and biomedi- to the Viterbi School and tripled the ing its breathtaking momentum, strikes the relocation of the Shoah Foundation— to build partnerships among varied constituencies. cine. Senior consultant to a range of corporations number of women on the faculty. me as the most rewarding endeavor in originally established by filmmaker and and a high-level advisor to the U.S. government, Yannis Yortsos, who succeeded Nikias American higher education today. USC trustee Steven Spielberg—and having held security clearance for 15 years. Founding as Viterbi dean in 2005, credits him “It has been said that the only sure the establishment of the USC Shoah director of two national research centers at USC: NSF with “re-inventing the engineering school way to predict the future is to invent Foundation Institute for Visual History Engineering Research Center on Integrated Media at USC.” it. And because USC’s faculty, students, and Education. Systems and Department of Defense Center for “Through Max’s remarkable energy alumni and staff comprise a global Nikias established an Office of Research on Applied Signal Processing. Innovations and vision he has left an indelible mark at intellectual community of unsurpassed Research Advancement in Washington, and patents in sonar, radar and communications the school,” said Yortsos. “In particular, breadth, energy and dedication, D.C., that has been directly responsible systems adopted by Department of Defense. Author securing the Viterbi legacy will be I have exceeding confidence in USC’s for helping faculty win more than of more than 275 journal articles and papers, three viewed as a historic achievement for own future. $140 million in federal research funding textbooks and eight patents. Mentor of more than 30 generations of students to come. With “My wife, Niki, and I and our in the past 30 months. Ph.D. and postdoctoral students. Before coming to Max at the helm, the university is in daughters love being a ‘Trojan family,’ USC, he held faculty appointments at the University of great hands to make the next qualitative and we love being a part of the greater to USC in NIKIAS WAS RECRUITED Connecticut and Northeastern University. leap in academic excellence.” Trojan Family. To be able, then, to lead 1991 to develop a national-caliber center Nikias’ selection as president by the Trojan Family forward now is the for multimedia research, and became ›› HONORS Member of the National Academy of the Board of Trustees followed a search opportunity of a lifetime, as we write the founding director and principal inves- Engineering and fellow of the Institute of Electrical process that involved an advisory com- together the next chapter in USC’s tigator for the Integrated Media Systems and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), California Council on mittee of trustees and senior faculty extraordinary history.” Center (IMSC). In a fierce competition Science and Technology, and American Association for representatives working with one of in 1996, USC’s IMSC proposal to NSF the Advancement of Science. Recipient of 2008 IEEE the nation’s premier search consulting AFTER BEING NAMED provost in was ranked first out of 117, a pool that Simon Ramo Medal. firms serving higher education. Between 2005, Nikias worked with faculty and included proposals from America’s top- ›› PERSONAL Wife Niki has an accounting degree November 2009 and January 2010, the deans to develop a number of new pro- ranked research universities. from Athens University of Economics and Business in advisory committee met with 15 key grams that would help create a distinct In April 2008, he was named inaug­ Greece, and an MBA in finance from SUNY Buffalo; USC constituent groups, including academic environment at USC. ural holder of the Malcolm R. Currie daughter Georgiana is a third-year student at USC students, faculty, alumni leaders, com- To enhance the undergraduate Chair in Technology and the Humanities. Gould School of Law; and daughter Maria is a senior munity representatives, staff, and various experience for USC students, he estab- As president, he also holds the Robert C. at the USC Annenberg School for Communication university supporters and friends. After lished new scholarship programs that Packard President’s Chair. & Journalism. reviewing approximately 75 candidates, reward innovative scholarship and global Each fall, Nikias teaches a micro- the committee interviewed seven final- academic immersion. He also sponsored seminar to incoming freshmen on the ists, all of whom were sitting presidents a USC Arts curriculum that encourages development of democracy and the To learn more about President Nikias, visit www.usc.edu/president. Photo by Phil Channing or provosts at major universities. cross-arts interdisciplinary programs, dramatic arts within ancient Athens. //

34 < FEATURES FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU FEATURES > 35 USC Viterbi School of Engineering Hosts 2010 NAE Grand Challenges Summit Grand Challenges Meet Great Minds as Summit Explores the Promise of Engineering Empowering Society

he USC Viterbi School of Engineering NAE President and keynote speaker T was front and center in the national Charles Vest focused on the underlying master spotlight October 6-8, 2010, and demonstrated, challenge: the supply of engineering talent. in the words of Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos, Vest hoped for more engineering students in “that important issues addressed expertly can the new generation, noting that 21 percent 1 change the game.” of students in Asia receive degrees in engi- The electricity of intellectual innovation neering, 14 percent in Europe, and only 4.5 filled the University of Southern California’s percent in the United States. “As a nation we Bovard Auditorium as leaders from a variety are moving in the wrong direction,” Vest said. of disciplines met to explore the National “Where we used to be number one, we are Academy of Engineering’s 14 Grand Challenges. falling down the scale.” More than 1,000 innovators, engineers, The issue of both improving engineering policy makers, educators, executives and stu- education and attracting more bright people to dents were on hand as moderator and broadcast technical careers was a continuing theme. The veteran Miles O’Brien, CNN’s former Chief Grand Challenge Scholars Program is part of Science and Technology Correspondent, that effort, as is the Maseeh Entrepreneurship fielded questions from audiences harnessing a Prize Competition, newly-established at the number of social media including a live blog, a Viterbi School (see sidebar on next page). 2 3 live webcast, Twitter feed and Facebook posts, Additionally, a remarkable student helping bring the Grand Challenges to life. program organized by Viterbi associate dean The Grand Challenges are 14 issues Louise Yates highlighted the next genera- identified by the NAE as areas where engi- tion of engineers. The October 6 student neers, in concert with key stakeholders, day included a K-12 student competition, can make the greatest impact to society, three demonstration sessions, an address by worldwide. A powerful line-up of panelists Dean Yortsos, a special meeting with NAE provided solutions from six different per- President Vest, and networking activities spectives—Technology, Innovation, Policy, that attracted a capacity crowd. Communications, Education and Business— The NAE Grand Challenges Summit all looking at how engineering empowers proved to motivate and capture the attention society and affects a broader societal landscape. of brilliant minds in whose hands the future In introducing the event, Dean Yortsos is now placed. The Summit organizers were 4 said that “the second annual Summit is not the USC Viterbi School of Engineering (host), only a forum on technology, but also one that along with Duke University’s Pratt School of [ 1 ] Communications Panel: Henry Jenkins, USC Provost’s will shine a light on the multitude of forces Engineering, the Olin College of Engineering, professor of communication, journalism, and cinematic arts; that need to be marshaled to solve crucial and the California Institute of Technology. Matthew Wald, New York Times journalist; Ali Velshi, societal issues.” Critical to the Summit’s success was the sup- CNN’s chief business correspondent; Jay Greene, journalist USC President C.L. Max Nikias provided port of 25 major corporations, with Lockheed and author of Design Is How It Works. the context for the discussion. “The solutions Martin serving as the presenting sponsor. [ 2 ] USC President C. L. Max Nikias delivers a Summit keynote address. of these Grand Challenges will not be solely [ 3 ] NAE President Charles Vest delivers a Summit keynote address. technological,” Nikias said. “They cannot be [ 4 ] Susan Hackwood, executive director of the California solved only by engineers and scientists. No Council on Science and Technology, speaks on the education (Left to Right) Miles O’Brien, summit moderator and former CNN science and technology correspondent, with the Summit’s four organizing For an archived webcast of the NAE single discipline can solve them alone—it will panel as Michael Escalante, retired superintendent of Glendale partners: Olin College of Engineering President Richard K. Miller; USC Viterbi School of Engineering Dean Yannis C. Yortsos; Duke University’s Grand Challenges Summit please visit Unified School District, looks on. Pratt School of Engineering Dean Tom Katsouleas; and the California Institute of Technology’s Division of Engineering Chair Ares Rosakis. require a unified front.” www.gcs2010.org/webcast.

36 < SPECIAL FEATURE FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU SPECIAL FEATURE > 37 Engineers As Entrepreneurs: Announcing The Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize

1 2 5 6

Yannis C. Yortsos with Fariborz Maseeh.

Seizing upon the need to encourage entrepre- neurship in the next generation of engineers, the Massiah Foundation and the Viterbi School 3 4 7 8 announced during the Summit the creation of a $1 million endowment to fund the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition. Entrepreneur-engineer Fariborz Maseeh is donating the money through his charitable Panel Highlights: Approaching the Grand Challenges from Six Perspectives organization to create an annual $50,000 prize, which will enable a business plan competition TECHNOLOGY Creative Technologies at USC, added, COMMUNICATION augment traditional schools. John for Viterbi students. Panel keynote speaker Jean-Lou Chameau, “As a culture, we need to reward systems Communicating science and engineering Brooks Slaughter, a former director of “Usually, engineers are taught to solve prob- President of the California Institute of that reflect the value of innovation.” to a broader audience is itself a challenge the National Science Foundation who 9 lems, but not to implement those solutions into Technology, framed the discussion by describ- and an opportunity. “We have to explain is now a USC professor of engineering businesses,” Maseeh said. “The idea of this prize ing a fundamental difference between the POLICY complicated things in a way that an audience and education, said STEM is critical to [ 1 ] Technology Panel: Jean-Lou Chameau, president of the California is to train engineering students more about busi- 20th and 21st Century: “The 20th Century,” The policy panel discussion focused on can understand,” said panelist Ali Velshi, meeting the Grand Challenges and tied Institute of Technology; Deborah Estrin, UCLA computer science professor; ness and competition in a professional way...and Chameau explained, “focused on progress; how engaging and effectively communicat- CNN’s Chief Business Correspondent. to American competitiveness. Franklin M. Orr, director of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford encourage engineers to think like entrepreneurs.” ing with policy makers may be one of the University; Matthew Tirrell, UC Berkeley professor and chair, Department the 21st Century must focus on sustainable New York Times energy reporter Matthew of Bioengineering; and Robert Cook, vice president of advanced technology, Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos lauded Maseeh’s progress, and this new approach should greatest challenges facing engineers and Wald remarked that the public often doesn’t BUSINESS Pixar Animation Studios. vision and said the award will challenge students define the way we approach technological educators. Success requires recommending understand fundamental issues behind The Business Panel emphasized the 2 to “learn additional skills that assure their ground- action from the policymaker’s perspective, role of corporate investment in bringing [ ] Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos delivers an address at the Summit’s innovation. The United States needs to spark sustainability. “The trick in a general Gala dinner. breaking ideas build businesses that will grow the an innovation arms race.” For Franklin Orr, said Daniel Schnur, chairman of the interest forum is writing something that the Grand Challenges to life. Peter economy and improve society overall.” California Fair Policy Practices Commission. Williams, CTO for the IBM-Big Green [ 3 ] Ming Hsieh, Cogent co-founder and namesake of the Viterbi School’s director of the Precourt Institute for Energy will appeal to all constituencies.” Department of electrical engineering, with USC’s Interim Provost Beth Garrett. Maseeh, who is a member of the Viterbi at Stanford University, one of the keys to such On the regional policy level, Bill Allen, Initiative, said that “we need to think School Board of Councilors, is committed to help­ sustainable progress is developing powerful president and CEO of the Los Angeles EDUCATION of each of these Grand Challenges as a [ 4 ] Innovation Panel: John Martin, CEO of Gilead; Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation; Mark S. Humayun, director of the ing engineers reach their full potential to shape County Economic Development The Education panel focused on the business rather than a grand idea.” One new energy solutions. NSF Biomimetic MicroElectronics Systems Engineering Research Center; the world, and said the NAE Grand Challenges Corporation, emphasized the need to bring challenge of educating future leaders in example came from Alexis Livanos, Jeff Wilcox, Lockheed Martin’s corporate vice president of engineering; Paul represent an ideal road map for engineers to INNOVATION together divergent groups to discuss fun- Science-Technology Education-Math Corporate Vice President and CTO of Debevec, associate director of the USC Institute for Creative Technologies. create real change. X PRIZE Foundation Chairman Peter damental issues about the economy. “You (STEM), and emphasized that innovation Northrop Grumman, whose team is [ 5 ] (Left to Right) Viterbi School friends Lauren Kear, Margo Allen and Maseeh is a pioneer in the field of micro-electro Diamandis stated that we are living in “an need to show the policymakers why your and education go hand in hand. Susan focused on the grand challenge of Bettina Deininger, with JoEllen Williamson of Viterbi External Relations. mechanical systems (MEMS) as well as a philan- extraordinarily magical time right now. To idea solves their problem.” Yet ultimately, Hackwood, Executive Director of securing cyberspace. Livanos described [ 6 ] (Left to Right) Viterbi School namesake Andrew Viterbi, USC President thropist. He said he selected the USC Viterbi create an innovation environment, you have “the solutions to the Grand Challenges the California Council on Science and his team’s “Observe, Orient, Decide and C.L. Max Nikias, and Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos. School for the award because of the school’s to be tolerant of risk. Fail often, fail early.” will come from people,” said Amy Alving, Technology, stressed that educators must Attack” process to develop flexible systems [ 7 ] Jeffrey Wilcox, corporate vice president of engineering for Lockheed tradition of engineering success, top leadership, Paul Debevec, recipient of an Academy CTO of Science Applications International also employ digital education to reach and flexible architectures that address Martin, addresses Summit attendees. and commitment to a vision for a better world. Award for his work on the film Avatar and Corporation (SAIC). “We can’t rely solely students with STEM education and that cyberspace security issues. // Associate Director of the Institute for on the federal government.” the digital classroom of the future could [ 8 ] Viterbi students Candace Bailey, Michele Forcier and Yakshita Desai. [ 9 ] Outside Bovard Auditorium.

38 < SPECIAL FEATURE FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU SPECIAL FEATURE > 39 ALUMNI NEWS to Mars, including the spectacular landings of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that continue to make discoveries well past their planned life spans. Matthew Aehle VITERBI ALUMNI A Trojan at the Helm These were missions that captured Minnesota-bound Mechanical Mastermind RELATIONS PLANNING SPACE MISSIONS AT NASA’S JPL the nation’s imagination. and Running Machine Naderi, who was born in Shiraz, Your membership in the Iran, and moved to America 45 years Provenance: Bethesda, MD (hometown); Trojan Family does not end ago, did not start out with a space bug Local swimming pool; running track; design lab like many of his JPL colleagues. He at graduation. The Viterbi was hoping to become an architect, but Viterbi Degree: M.S. Mechanical Engineering, 2009 School’s Office of Alumni “found out that drawing—which you Job Hunt Victory: Securing a full-time position as mechanical design engineer Relations is here to build and then had to do by hand—was not one of with Medtronic, in Minneapolis, Minnesota sustain your connection to my strong suits, so I went into electrical engineering,” he says. Engineering Hero: Medtronic co-founder Earl Bakken, who invented the USC, to the Viterbi School First he earned a bachelor’s degree first portable and implantable pacemakers from Iowa State University at Ames in and to your fellow Trojan Minnesota Winter Survival Buy: Top-end Columbia ski jacket, waterproof Engineers—a connection that 1969, and then went on for a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engi- ski gloves is truly lifelong and worldwide. neering at USC. Speediest Accomplishment: Breaking the five-minute mile as a track athlete You are part of a distin- “The foundation that I built my at Case Western University guished group of more than career on is what USC gave me,” says Naderi, who says he likes to challenge Stress-Reliever: Running at least 5 miles four days a week, and swimming 55,000 Viterbi School alumni. himself by taking on new projects every the other three five years. (Before his work on Mars We hope you take advantage Survival Food: Home-cooked chicken or ground turkey tacos, hold the exploration, he worked on a series of of the many opportunities to cheese (“Because I’m lactose-intolerant”) efforts including the Origins Program, build connections with this which was designed to observe the birth Greatest Feat in Challenging Time/Space Continuum: Running a cross- group through volunteering, of the earliest galaxies, the formation of country meet in NYC, and arriving on-time in Washington, D.C., five hours guest lecturing, career mentor- stars and the search for other Earths.) later for a student music award ceremony. (He changed out of his track clothes Naderi says he likes being a system in a Starbucks restroom.) ing and supporting the school. engineer, which he likens to being an Alumni also stay connected orchestra conductor. Most Ambiguous Leadership Title: Risk Management Chair at Case to the engineering com- “You can’t be jealous of a virtuoso Western’s Phi Kappa Tau fraternity (he was also Executive Vice President) who is playing very well,” says Naderi. Firouz Naderi standing before the nuclear-powered lander Mars Science Laboratory. It will be Best USC Memory: Performing hip hop dance in the talent competition mu ­n­ity through our online launched in the fall of 2011, and land in the summer of 2012. “You need to appreciate the orchestra’s “Engineering Idol,” despite a stress fracture in his leg three months earlier database, lifetime email individual talents, and make music forwarding, networking and Bringing a piece of Mars back to But the time horizon is long: 2018 is the together better than any of them can Why Engineering? Always more interested in taking apart his Christmas earth. Peeking below the icy surface expected launch date for the first mission. by themselves.” presents than playing with them attendance at annual events of Jupiter’s moon Europa, looking for Naderi’s rise at JPL began after a Even though he’s fully assimilated, such as Homecoming and an ocean below. These are some of series of costly failures at the Lab, Naderi says never forgets that he came Favorite Viterbi Professors: Yan Jin and Hank Dolim, for putting class the Viterbi Awards. Firouz Naderi’s and the Jet Propulsion which culminated in the loss of a pair to this country as an immigrant and tries concepts within the context of the working world

Laboratory’s latest challenges. of NASA Mars missions in 1999. The to keep the mindset of an intense need ME ENGINEERING Toughest USC Class: Finite Element Analysis As an associate director at JPL era was known for the slogan “Faster- to try harder at tasks to show you can Stay Connected in Pasadena, Naderi, (M.S.EE ’72, Better-Cheaper,” a formula to which compete with anyone—and excel more Noteworthy Academic Feat: Co-authoring five papers while a student, Ph.D.EE ’76), oversees planning for cynics snarkily added the words “Pick than most. including one titled “Ultrasound-Induced Calcium Oscillations and Waves We rely on your accurate mailing future JPL missions. Any Two.” When he speaks to USC students, in Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells in the Presence of Microbubbles” and email addresses to ensure you One of the space exploration’s most Following the problems, in the he reminds them of what USC gave him. challenging undertakings, the “Mars summer of 2000, Naderi helped design a “When people say they want to do what Biggest Challenge: Taking time to celebrate accomplishments, rather than receive our many publi­cations and Sample Return” project, involves three differently conceived, intricately-woven I’ve done,” he says, “what I tell them is attacking what’s next on the “to-do” list invitations to special events. Please spacecraft. Number One lands and sends program of missions, in which new space that USC gives you a firm foundation for Words To Live By: “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the update your information online at out a rover to collect samples. Number technologies would be spread out evenly this house of knowledge.” gift.”—Steve Prefontaine Two takes the samples from the first rover across multiple missions to limit the “But beyond that, I tell them, remain viterbi.usc.edu/alumni or by contact­ and launches it into Mars orbit. Number downside consequences of a failure. hungry and remain curious. Don’t get ing the VSoE Office of Alumni Three collects the material from the Mars It worked. He led the program that comfortable. Constantly challenge your- Relations at 213.821.2424. orbit and brings it back to Earth. resulted in three successful missions self. If you do well, people will notice.” // Me...Engineered

40 < ALUMNI NEWS FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU ALUMNI NEWS > 41 Studying Optics and Graduating Three Generations of Trojan Engineers BOY WONDER WAS C++ Programming from Afghanistan THE PRASAD FAMILY HAS USC “IN THE BLOOD” A TEENAGE BOEING “BATTLING ROCKET FIRE AND CONNECTIVITY ISSUES” TO EARN AN M.S. Three full generations of Prasads CONSULTANT have made USC their home, calling engineering their profession and football Ryan Kramer was Captain Matt Smith spent parts of their passion. done with high school the last five semesters hunkered down “I grew up with USC in my blood,” at 13 and college at in forward operating bases in Kuwait says Sulekha Prasad, who hails from 18. Soon after, he and Afghanistan. Generation #2. was helping Boeing But the Army intelligence officer Sulekha’s father Saryu Prasad develop mission didn’t let that geographical challenge launched the family’s long affiliation concepts for planetary stop him from graduating this spring with USC. Saryu was born in the exploration on a part- from the Viterbi School with a master’s ancient city of Patna, India, a city located time basis. degree in electrical engineering. on the banks of the Ganges River. He Last May, at 19, Smith, 25, attended EE classes, chat- watched a neighbor go off to USC, and Kramer graduated ted with professors and took exams 100 Saryu followed shortly there­after to from the Viterbi School percent online through the Viterbi School’s study civil engineering. with an M.S. in engi- Distance Education Network (DEN). While at USC, the senior Prasad neering management “Going to graduation was the found a part-time job working as a tech- Ryan Kramer (Epstein Department first time I’d stepped on campus,” nician in a paint company’s lab to support of Industrial and Systems Engineering) and says Smith of the May 14 commence- himself. He finished his bachelor’s accepted a job offer to work at NASA’s Jet ment ceremonies. degree in three years, and after his wife Propulsion Laboratory. Smith earned a B.S. in physics while and young son joined him in the United Kramer says the clout of USC’s engineering enrolled in the Army ROTC program States, they made the decision to remain management program helped him land the at M.I.T. Two years into his Army service, and raise their family here. Within a top-flight position. He holds a bachelor’s in he decided to pursue graduate studies few years, the young family of three aerospace engineering from the University of while deployed and discovered DEN. grew to five. Colorado at Boulder, but opted to pursue his “It changed my perspective of online Captain Matt Smith Saryu eventually earned not only two master’s so he wouldn’t be “just an engineer.” degrees to see an engineering school of USC degrees, but also the distinction of “The M.S. takes it one step further,” Kramer USC’s caliber offer a distance education military intelligence support for strategic being the first in the family to graduate The Prasads: Sulekha, mother Savitri, father Saryu, Ajay and Ajay’s father Aditya at the USC vs. Oregon State says. “Knowing how to design a spacecraft isn’t program,” says Smith. decision-makers and combat units on from college. basketball game in February. enough if you want to get it into space.” But the journey was not always easy. the ground. “USC has provided a lot to our family Kramer never intended to skip grades during During his first semester, he was sent Then he’d throw down dinner and that could not have been imagined over As for Sulekha, she has worked childhood; that decision was borne simply of a to Kuwait during final exams. And head back the living quarters he called 50 years ago when my parents came her entire career for Hughes Aircraft, series of difficulties in finding the right school during parts of his last two semesters, his “hut” and attend courses online, to the U.S. from India,” says Sulekha. and then Raytheon when it purchased THE Smith was deployed to Bagram Airfield FATHER: for a child who demonstrated a 181 IQ at an age participate in class discussions, and study “My dad was drawn to engineering, as Hughes Aircraft’s defense business. Saryu Prasad in Afghanistan. most kids were pondering clothing options for well past midnight most evenings. I understand it, because engineers were Sulekha held a grand total of eight jobs BSCE ’60 the junior high school prom. There, he would spend 12-hour “Sometimes the base would take said to make a good living in India.” at the company before finally landing MSCE ’62 “I wasn’t feeling academically challenged days, seven days a week, providing rocket fire and my first thought would be Saryu recently retired after 32 years as a Product Support Division Program and I was high energy,” says Kramer. “I’d be ‘Man, this will make it harder to get back of helping to design and build L.A.’s Manager that served as her original THE SON: singing opera in class and causing a distraction.” to my room and finish my assignment,’” extensive flood control system as a civil entrée into the company. THE Ajit Prasad Now that he’s entered the working world, says Smith. engineer for Los Angeles County. Rounding out the third generation DAUGHTER: BSEE ’88 Kramer says he’s happy to know where he got Logistics were sometimes a challenge. Saryu says he never would have of USC engineers is Saryu’s grandson, Sulekha Prasad MSEE ’92 his engineering genes. Not from mom, who Once, while deployed, Smith had to guessed that he’d blaze the trail for Ajay Prasad, 23. As a child, he attended BSEE ’87 MSEE ’90 studied communication arts. arrange for the re-routing of a government two successive generations of Trojan football games at USC with his family, Kramer was conceived from donor sperm, line through Fort Bragg to call into USC engineers. “They were all very studious,” and was often a visitor at Aunt Sulekha’s and recently united with his biological donor for a live chat with Professor Armand he says. “Top of their class in math, Hughes Aircraft office on “take a child father only to find that he, too, received a Tanguay, who taught EE529: Optics. so I’m not surprised that they ended to work” days. master’s degree in engineering management. Smith will finish his Army commit- as engineers from USC.” One of the Prasad family’s favorite THE GRANDSON: That’s not all: a donor half-sibling also fin- ment in early 2011, after which he plans His son Ajit graduated one year memories is their 2004 trip to the Rose Ajay Prasad ished high school three years early and went on to pursue a career in medical physics, behind his older sister, Sulekha. Ajit is Bowl, where USC beat the University BSCS ’09 to get a degree in nuclear engineering. defense research or quantitative finance. now an engineering program manager of Michigan. MSCS ’10 “We do get a lot more than I would have “My focus was signal and image at Qualcomm specializing in manag- “I taught Ajay and his sisters how guessed from our genes,” says Kramer, adding processing, and all those fields are ing software releases for the company’s to make the Trojan ‘V’ victory symbol that his donor father’s family also includes a different applications of the concepts app store, and has worked for Hughes as soon as they were old enough,” Smith’s “hut” on Bagram Airfield, and the Trojan or two. “I’m the ultimate experiment in Dell computer where he watched all Viterbi I learned while at the Viterbi School,” Aircraft Company, DIRECTV, Boeing, says Sulekha. “You can never start nature versus nurture.” // // School lectures. Smith says. // and Symantec in the past. too young.” //

42 < ALUMNI NEWS FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU ALUMNI NEWS > 43 The Viterbi School as Startup Incubator TWO YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS INVENT IBART, GLASS

USC provided the resources of a Born in Chiapas and raised primar- CALENDAR larger university, but had the feel of a ily Tijuana, Prats has long loved the small institution, he added. He gravi- dynamism and multiculturalism of OF EVENTS tated to campus culture, in which smart the borderlands from Los Angeles to students worked hard but still enjoyed Ensenada. He found that spirit at USC, We look forward to seeing you themselves. To help restore balance in where he studied the application of at Viterbi School events, where his busy life, Hodge trained with the math, logic, and computer science to school’s triathlon club. business processes in industrial and you’ll join fellow alumni and After iBart’s breakout success, systems engineering. It “was a growing friends who share a passion for Hodge and Leighton spent the fall of department, and I wanted to be part of a 2008 working on what to do next, and growing story,” said Prats, adding that he USC engineering. We have a fun while they decided to keep iBart free appreciated USC’s vibrant community. and diverse schedule, so make and accessible, they would offer a paid “You meet people from all back- upgrade ($4.99) that would offer users grounds and academic fields,” said Prats. plans now to join us at one or access to real-time arrival information iBart founder David Hodge with his iPhone “You’ll be at lunch, talking to someone more of the following: on trains. Two nights a week, Hodge as a Los Angeles MTA bus passes. Hodge is working on an MRI machine, and on developing a mobile application for L.A.’s holed himself up in conference rooms your right, you can talk to someone about public transportation network. USC vs. Arizona Weekender on campus and by that spring, after an the new Mark Twain autobiography.” TUCSON, AZ all-nighter, finished the upgrade, booked In early 2008, Prats’ younger brother For six months, the co-founders November 13, 2010 an airline ticket, and presented the app Eduardo wanted to show Diego and worked on market analysis, looking for at a small meeting at Apple headquarters their childhood friend, Oscar Guido, who angel funding and putting together a pro- USC vs. Oregon St. to fellow developers. graduated from USC School of Cinematic totype to show investors—while working Weekender Glass co-founders Ed Prats, Oscar Guido, and Diego Prats. They named their startup Pandav, Arts, something on his computer. But multiple part-time jobs. Prats was also CORVALLIS, OR which has since incorporated with the none of them wanted to get up. balancing work with studies as a doctoral November 20, 2010 What started as a summer lark for David The duo submitted their free app help of USC’s Stevens Institute and its Wouldn’t it be cool if you could point candidate in systems and industrial engi- Hodge (BSCS, ’11) became a best-seller to Apple in mid-August, and within Small Business Clinic. The co-founders at something on the Internet, yet not neering. They used empty classrooms Half Century Trojans in Apple’s App Store, and quickly led to hours of its release, they had scored hired three USC students and landed a have to be present? they asked. “We at USC to practice giving presentations, Going Back To College Day a government contract and airline tickets 10,000 downloads and dozens of glowing contract to develop a version for Albany’s started spinning all the things you could meet to discuss strategy, and interview LOS ANGELES, CA to Italy and Atlanta from those clamoring reviews, including an award from San transportation system. They also released do with such a paradigm,” said Prats, 27. potential employees. February 17, 2011 to work with the co-founder of the public Francisco magazine and mentions in the free versions for Chicago and Washington From that simple idea—a finger By the summer of 2008, after raising transit startup. New York Times, Washington Post, and D.C. The original application has been pointing at the screen—their company enough funding to support themselves, USC Women’s Conference In June 2008, the summer after his Atlantic Monthly. downloaded more than 200,000 times Border Stylo, and their first product was the founders devoted themselves full LOCATION TBD freshman year, Hodge, a computer sci- Hodge today is working on develop- and is used on average between six and born. Glass is an add-on for the Mozilla time to their startup, and Prats left the Spring 2011 ence and business administration major, ing applications for the Los Angeles 10 thousand times each day. Firefox browser and is currently in beta doctoral program. and his friend Ian Leighton, who is metro area, as well as Boston and Chicago. Pandav has turned a profit from sales testing. It allows users to place notes on Border Stylo, now housed in an USCAA Alumni Awards studying mechanical engineering design He has a version ready for beta testing of its upgrade, its contract from the state top of any website and share them with office in Hollywood, has about 30 LOS ANGELES, CA at UC Berkeley, won scholarships to in Los Angeles, but the market may be of New York, and ad sales. whomever they want. employees and interns. Their goals Spring 2011 attend a developer’s conference on how limited, he says, as few Angelenos with The Pandav founders are deciding For example, a child who wants to are to improve the beta version with to create applications for the iPhone. iPhones use public transit. what to work on next. Perhaps New York show their parents how to navigate the a user feedback and testing, creating Between sessions, they sat on bean- Speaking from Paris, where he was City, which accounts for half of public Internet can write notes indicating to the add-on for other web browsers, and Check out viterbi.usc.edu/alumni/ bag chairs and sketched out ideas on a taking history and engineering writing transportation use in the United States, click here, not there, on a webpage. A bride expand into international markets. events and alumni.usc.edu/events whiteboard before deciding to develop classes through USC’s overseas study or something else entirely, Hodge says. and her bridesmaids—even if they’re “We want to make products that keep for details on upcoming events. a trip-planning application for BART, program, Hodge says the business took The potential for the development scattered across the country—can have in mind social and human interaction,” a light rail transportation system in the him by surprise. “For all I knew, it of iPhone applications is vast. Since a discussion “on” the vendor site about Prats said. // Bay Area. Public transit was a longtime wouldn’t amount to anything.” the App Store’s inception, developers the dresses shown. passion of Leighton’s. What wasn’t a surprise was his of all kinds of applications have earned Comments, links and real-time chats They thought the project, an exercise entrepreneurial path. Hodge had chosen more than $1 billion in revenues and can be anchored to text and images, and of sorts, would take two weeks. But to attend USC because the school gave served up more than 5 billion downloads. anyone the user chooses can be included as they started testing the application, him the flexibility to take computer And iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users in the conversation—without an added they realized iBart just might become science and business classes. “Normally, download over 16.6 million applications step of sending it in a separate e-mail. a useful, meaningful product with real there’s almost no overlap at engineering every day, analysts say. In the future, users will be able to place market appeal. Hodge, now 21, devel- schools. But in the real world, there’s a Like Hodge, Diego Prats (MS photos, video files and more on top on oped algorithms to connect with BART’s lot of overlap. It was great to learn things Operations Research’07) co-founded this virtual sheet of glass—as part of the data, and Leighton, also 21, worked on in software classes and then apply them his tech startup, Border Stylo, while still growing trend of customizing the web  Please visit us online at www.pandav.us the interface. in finance.” attending USC. experience with social media. and www.borderstylo.com.

44 < ALUMNI NEWS FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU ALUMNI NEWS > 45 Remembering Arminta Harness In Memoriam FORMER SWE PRESIDENT BLAZED A TRAIL FOR WOMEN ENGINEERS

Edward Louis Armstrong John A. Harbolt Victor H. Smith (BSME ’51), 86, died in Laguna Beach (BSME ’64), died May 22 in Pensacola, (BSISE ’54), 90, died on January 29, “She flew every fixed-wing aircraft in May 2010. He was a retired U.S. Fla. He served in Vietnam and later in Glenville, N.Y. He was an engineer that the Air Force had,” said Millie Navy captain and World War II sub­ worked for General Dynamics based for General Electric until 1979, and Kruger, a longtime friend, biochemist mariner. He held three patents and had out of Ft. Worth, Texas, as a technical embarked on a second career as an and Manhattan Beach neighbor. worked at Rocketdyne and Autonetics, representative for the F-16. He is engineering inspector and expediter. “She learned to fly before she could among other companies. He is survived survived by his daughter Tawn and He is survived by three children, Andee, drive a car.” by his wife of 47 years, Marilyn; five grandchildren. Steve and Sherri; six grandchildren; Harness also served as Deputy Chief daughter Victoria; son John; and and eight great-grandchildren. of Engineering and then as Chief of three grandchildren. Program Control for the $80 million Will Koch Gemini Target Vehicle Program. She (MSCS ’86), 48, died in Indianapolis, Kary Philip Tiel was the first woman to receive the Staff Maj. Floyd Barrow Jr. likely of complications from diabetes. (BSCE ’93), 40, of Portland, Ore. died Development Engineer rating and the (MSAME ’63), 81, passed away on He was co-owner of the Holiday World on July 2 after a battle with pancreatic first woman to receive both Senior and May 25 in Chattanooga, Tenn. He and Splashin’ Safari theme park in Santa cancer. He was a structural engineer Master Missileman badges. served in the Army, Air Force and com- Claus, Ind., which was founded by his and owned KPT Engineering and “She was very proud of her con- pleted three tours of duty in Vietnam. grandfather. Koch is survived by his wife, Development. He is survived by his wife nection with USC,” said Carol Segal, a He is survived by his wife Betty of 53 Lori; three children, Lauren, Leah, and Regina; daughter Brittany; and mother scientist and another close Manhattan years; children Bill, Teresa, Phil and William; and his mother Pat. Phillis Tiel. Beach friend. “It was one of only two Preston; three grandchildren; and schools that accepted women in engi- five great-grandsons.

neering at the time.” Frederic Clift McCall Charles Edward White (BSISSM ’48), 88, died in Goldsboro, (MSSM ’82) died May 4 in Pensacola, Born in Oklahoma where her father N.C. on February 5. He served in World FL after a nearly two-year battle with was an oilman, Harness’ parents always Howard Doan Bungard (BSME ’47), 86, died December 20, War II and spent the 25 years before lung cancer. White was a naval pilot supported her decision to become an 2009 in Sun Lakes, Ariz. He was an his retirement with Olinkraft Forest for nearly 20 years and later became a aeronautical engineer, which she made engineering supervisor at the Puget Products Company, retiring as vice pres­ logistics engineer. Chuck is survived by as a high school sophomore. A young Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, ident. He is survived by two daughters, his wife Betty of 55 years; six children, female algebra teacher and aviator WA for over 30 years, retiring in 1974. Randy and Frances; his son Frederic; Mike, Kevin, Kathie, Sharon, Theresa Amelia Earhart, whom she never met, He is survived by his wife Bernice and three grandchildren. and Sean; 19 grandchildren; and seven were role models of hers. Many years of 63 years; daughters Janan, Barbara, great-grandchildren. spent helping her father train oilfield Patricia and Cynthia; six grandchildren; engineers taught her to work as the only and five great-grandchildren. Denny J. Purkey woman in a group of men. (BSEE ’67), 76, died January 22 in “She had that southern grace and Portland, Ore. He enlisted in the composure, always very warm and Mark James Effinger Air Force and later spent 13 years at welcoming, and she did things right,” (MSCS ’87), 45, died on January 17. McDonnell Douglas as a senior engi- During a 30-year engineering career, transferred to Wright Patterson Air Force said Segal. He worked in the telecommunications neering specialist. He eventually went Arminta Harness (BSAME ’55) blazed Base for an engineering job, but there After 24 years, Harness retired from and software industry for more than into business and tax consulting. He is a trail for all technically-minded women was a snag: The male processing officer the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel and 26 years and was the vice president survived by his wife Diane; sons by becoming the first woman engineer in at the base didn’t think women should be joined Westinghouse Hanford Company of global services and support for David, Michael and Paul; daughters the U.S. Air Force. engineers and slotted her for administra- where she spent more than five years. Mformation in Edison, N.J. He is sur- Christalyn and Amy; 23 grandchildren; Harness, who passed away last tive duties. A Fellow Life Member of SWE, Harness vived by his parents Frank and Anita; and 14 great-grandchildren. February in Millville, Calif., at the age Undeterred, Harness trained another served as its national president from siblings Kelly, Michelle and Tracey; of 81, happened upon her Air Force officer for the admin job and then 1976 to 1978 and in many other leader- and five nieces and nephews. CELEBRATE YOUR career initially because she couldn’t get assigned herself the engineering posi- ship roles on the local and national level. Rev. Lloyd F. Ramey an engineering job after graduation. tion, saying she “learned how to transfer A talented sculptor and artist, (BSChE ’50), 86, died on July 25. LEGACY NOW! Ramey was an insurance agent for “Time and time again my own self. From that point on in the she designed SWE’s Resnik Challenger Robert C. Gardner Make a Life Pledge and help build I was told, ‘as long as Air Force, I was always an engineer.” Medal, a merit-based award given (MSPE ’77), 78, died on January 30 in 17 years and later deputy insurance a sustainable endowment for future a returning GI needs During her career, Harness designed to an engineer whose contributions Alaska. He was born in Hollywood, Calif. commission for the state of Oregon until generations of engineers at USC. a job, I’m not going to intelligence-gathering equipment for the have broadened the frontiers of but went to Alaska first as a surveyor his retirement in 1985. He is survived for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. by his wife Suzanne; daughters and hire a woman,’” she U-2 aircraft, provided management direc- space exploration. To explore the Life Pledge and other said in an oral history tion for the $2 billion Space and Missile Harness is survived by an aunt and Later he became principal or founding spouses, Karen and John French, Dana partner of several consulting engineering and Tom Gentry, Janis and Andy estate planning options, contact the documented by the Society of Women Systems Organization budget, and was the cousin. She never married. USC Viterbi School’s Office of External Engineers (SWE). first woman on orders as a test engineer “A lot of professional women in our firms. He is survived by his wife Tracy; Andrews; and six grandchildren. Relations at 213.740.2502. The Air Force initially assigned during flight-testing of the experimental age group never married,” explained children Christopher, Geoff and Julia; her to recruiting duty. Later, she was equipment that she designed. Kruger. “We were too busy.” // and six grandchildren.

46 < ALUMNI NEWS FALL 2010 VITERBI.USC.EDU ALUMNI NEWS > 47 Q O&A Viterbi School’s Distance Education Network Q&A: Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger Comes to USC

Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger served as the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s undergraduate commencement speaker in May 2010. This fall he will lead a Viterbi School symposium for aviation executives that will combine The Power of Education – key concepts of organizational leadership with core ideas of aviation safety.

The pilot and aviation consultant was hailed internation- organizational culture are to safety. The two-day executive Anywhere, Anytime ally as a hero after he safely guided U.S. Airways Flight 1549 symposium is specifically tailored to decision-makers within to an emergency water landing in New York’s Hudson River aviation organizations, and participants can expect to leave in January 2009. He saw that all 155 passengers and crew the program with an advanced knowledge of aviation safety disembarked before exiting the Airbus 320 himself. Since and the kind of org­anizational culture that is required to then he has become a global ambassador for aviation safety. effectively achieve it. He has published a memoir entitled Highest Duty and is work- Over 35 M.S. Degree Programs, Non-credit Courses & Certificate Programs ing on a second book. We at USC were honored to have you Sullenberger is a graduate of the United States Air Force as our commencement speaker in 2010. Tell us again Academy and served as a fighter pilot in the Air Force. He later what you hoped to impart as lessons learned for became a commercial airline pilot and retired in March 2010 our young graduates? from a 30-year career. He earned his bachelor’s in psychol- When I began to prepare myself for the day’s address, ogy from the Air Force Academy, a master’s in industrial I asked myself what I could say that would be relevant across psychology from Purdue University, and a master’s in public a gulf of nearly 40 years. And that was to talk about what administration from the University of Northern Colorado. I’ve continually worked to do in my life. I advised the grad­ He spoke to the Viterbi School this summer about heroism, uates to invest in themselves, never stop learning, and never aviation safety, and what engineers can do to serve society. stop growing, either professionally or personally. Choose to show up for your life, choose not to be a bystander. Choose The word “hero” and your name to make a difference. have almost become synonymous. What does this word “hero” mean to you? We are an engineering school and In the last year, I’ve thought a lot about what “hero” we strive to prepare the next generation of engineer- means. I think that we, in our society, overuse that word and ing leaders. What do you see as the engineer’s main hence dilute its meaning. When used properly, when used contribution to aviation safety? To society? Technology Academics Students appropriately, it’s a word that describes traits and qualities It’s important for engineers to understand and be well- • Watch courses via live webcast • 168 tenured and tenure-track • Flexibility for professional that go to the very heart of what makes us human. Many schooled in the science of safety. Your engineering work can people may think of these traits and qualities as abstractions, be top notch and it’s still possible to fail if you don’t allow or archive faculty members engineers to pursue career and education simultaneously but for some they have real meaning in real life with real for human performance considerations. You must have a • Full interactivity for classes • Dedicated professors who are consequences. These concepts include duty, honor, courage system safety mindset that acknowledges not only human leaders in their fields • Network of more than 1,000 and sacrifice. And courage is not the absence of fear—fear abilities, but human limitations. By doing this, we provide viewed in real time professional students is normal, fear is human. Courage great benefits to society. • Over 130 courses available online • Interdisciplinary programs is having the discipline and the • M.S. students receive identical in fall and spring semesters realistic confidence to do what is You have become a global ambassador curriculum as on-campus students required in spite of it. for aviation safety. What particular areas need special focus or improvement? Tell us about Pilot experience is an issue, not only in the United the class you will be instruct- States, but around the world. As we transition from one New Programs for 2010 What our students say: ing/participating in at USC. generation of pilots to the next, we need to make sure those What will be the focus, who follow have the same fundamental skills, in-depth M.S. in Green Technologies “ My busy work schedule posed a huge obstacle for me and what do you hope the knowledge, and the kind of judgment that comes only to attend classes in person. Fortunately, the online DEN students will take away from from long experience. M.S. in Financial Engineering the course? Additionally, pilot fatigue is an issue that needs to be program at USC made it really easy for me to watch the M.S. in Health Systems Management Engineering This course will be a symposium addressed. In this country, our decades-old rest rules need classes during my free time at night and on the week- at the executive level of to be updated to reflect how we fly now, both on short- M.S. in Electrical Engineering (Electric Power) ends. DEN made it possible for me to achieve my goal.” aviation enterprises. and long-haul flights. – Dennis Lee, Northrop Grumman Corporation The major focus will And as we transition to the Safety Management System ...and exciting new short courses in a variety of disciplines be to create an (SMS) concept, safety will become embedded in our pro- understanding of cesses as a core business function, and management at every how important level of the organization will be held accountable for safety. leadership and SMS has the potential—if properly implemented in an the creation effective organizational safety culture—to take aviation of a positive safety to the next level. // viterbi.usc.edu/mapp NON-PROFIT USC Viterbi //Engineer ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE USC Viterbi School of Engineering PAID University of Southern California UNIVERSITY OF Olin Hall 500 SOUTHERN Los Angeles, CA 90089-1451 CALIFORNIA

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